The Time After
by PsychicEevee0103
Summary: What happens when Ash dies and leaves Pikachu with his adopted sister?
1. Chapter 1

** A/N: Hello! This is a story I've been writing at school for a long while. It's kind of dark, especially at the beginnning. Also, I worked on keeping the characters in character, and be more descriptive. Tell me if you like it or not in reviews, 'kay? Here goes!**

** I don't own Pokemon, you say? Only too true, though I wish it isn't so...**

(**Note: First chapter is 3****rd**** person, but all others are 1****st**** person POV**)

(**Delia's POV**)

Delia's mind was reeling. Her baby boy was... she just couldn't believe it.

"Could you... say that again?" she asked the young man on the other end of the video phone. He was tall, with pale skin and almost neon green hair, which stood up in three spikes at the front which looks like grass. He had a formal suit on, as well as a small (in comparison to Ash's previous traveling companions) brown backpack. His eyes, which matched his hair in color, had tears in them, as well as there being tearstains on his cheeks.

"I-I'm sorry Ms. Ketchum, but your son, Ash... he's... dead," at that last word, he, along with the two young women, one of which Delia knew, as well as the four Pokemon in view, a Pikachu, a Vaporeon, a Flareon, and a Pokemon she didn't know-she assumed at least part of its name was "Axew" because it kept saying that-began crying again, the girl she knew leaning on the boy for support. It was understandable, considering Ash was her adopted brother, as well as the boy who helped her to see that not everyone was bad.

"How did he... go?" Delia asked after a minute or so.

"T-team Rocket," the girl she knew, Tay, responded, lifting her head from the boy, Cilan or something. "They were t-trying to steal a girl's Liligant." Tay saw the confusion on Delia's face at the name of the Pokemon, one she didn't know, and pulled a small grey machine from her purse, which hung at approximately her waist at her right side. Holding it vertically, she typed something into it, then showed the screen up to the video phone. It showed a bipedal Pokemon, which was a Grass type judging by the large red bloom on its head. It was mostly light green, but its arms, the leaves on the bottom of its flower, and the edges of the capelike part on its back were darker green. There are also other colors, but they aren't as dominant as those two. A small voice came from the Pokedex.

"**Liligant, the Flowering Pokemon. Trainers find it difficult to make the flower on its head bloom, and once it does bloom, it withers if Liligant is not taken care of properly.**" it rattled off.

"So they... were trying to take one of those?" Delia asked.

"Yeah," the other girl, Iris or something, relied. She had dark skin, and navy blue hair, a LOT of it. It was at least three times the size of her head, and the Pokemon Delia didn't know, that Axew or something, nestled in there. She had brown eyes, and wore loose clothes that were a rather pretty mix of yellow with pink edges. She, too, was crying.

"Ash attacked them," the dark haired girl continued where Tay had left off in telling the story. "He had Pikachu use Thunderbolt, but Team Rocket reflected it back, the power at least quadrupled, back at Pikachu. Despite the natural resistance to electricity, Pikachu would have been done for, that is, if Ash hadn't jumped in the way at the last second. It was too much for his body to take. The last thing he said... was for Pikachu to go with Tay." Iris finished.

Everyone was startled as a new voice spoke up from out of view from the other side of the video phone. "What's going on here?"

The speaker walked into view. It was a girl with fair skin and brown hair under a green and white bandana. She had blue eyes that sparkled with curiosity. She had an orange, black-collared, and white shirt. There was a green waist pack at her, well, waist. (**A/N: Wow! Really? I thought it was at her head! *sarcasm***) Delia gasped as she recognized the girl, at almost exactly the same time as Tay.

"May?" they asked at the same time.

"Yep, it's me," May smiled and giggled.

"Who's that, Tay?" the other girl asked.

"Guys, this is May. We traveled together a year and a half ago with..." Tay obviously couldn't bring herself to say the name of her late brother so soon after his departure. "May, these are Cilan and Iris." The two in question say short greetings (Iris said "Hi" and Cilan "It's nice to meet you"). "We've been traveling together for a while now."

"Hi, Ms. Ketchum! Where's Ash, Tay?" May asked quietly.

"He's... no longer in this world," Cilan answered for Tay, who lowered her head so her light silver eyes were shadowed, but thin silver lines-tears-streaked down her cheeks, dripping down her chin. Iris turned away, but anyone could see the tears threatening to fall from her eyes as well. Cilan was trying to look strong, but even the blindest of Zubats could tell that he was on the verge of crying.

"No... no... no!" May started sobbing, collapsing onto the floor and out of view.

"When's... the funeral?" Delia asked softly.

"We'll be... taking him to Pallet Town in a few days for the funeral. Is... that alright?" Tay answered.

"Yes, yes. I have to... spread the word," Delia said, then switched off the video phone. She fetched Mr. Mime before hurrying off to tell the people she thought Ash would've liked to know first, the one that gave him his ever loyal first Pokemon, as well as the young man that traveled with him through the Orange Archipelago, who was now the first's assistant.

"Professor? Tracey?" Delia knocked on the door. Well, more like her knuckles were shaking in sadness, and they hit the door.

"Mime? Mime?" Mr. Mine imitated.

"Delia?" the door opened to reveal Professor Oak. He looked confused. "Why are you crying? Come in and sit down."

"Where's Tracey? He and the Pokemon need to hear... something." Delia replied, going in.

"What is it? You seem upset," Professor Oak wondered aloud.

"I'd rather not say it twice," Delia headed to the ranch right away.

"Tracey's feeding the Pokemon," Professor Oak followed Delia out.

"Bulba-saur!" Ash's loyal friend nuzzled Delia's legs, seeing and sensing her sadness.

"Nya? Nya nya!" Delia very nearly smiled at the sight of the hyperactive pink Pokemon that came quickly, batting at Delia and Professor Oak's feet as the two walked. "Not now Luna," Delia stopped for a moment, leaned down, and picked up Tay's hyper Skitty in her arms. "Bulbasaur, can you gather the rest of Ash and Tay's Pokemon please? I-I have an announcement to make."

"Bul-bulbasaur!" the grass/poison type sent a large spray of rainbow pollen into the air.

It started as a whisper, the rustle of cellophane. Next, a dust cloud appeared on the horizon. It got closer and closer, the sounds getting louder and louder, until many Pokemon were right in front of the two. Huffing, Tracey appeared from the forest and jogged over to them.

"What's going on?" he asked as he came. "I saw Bulbasaur's signal to the Pokemon, and I came. Are you alright, Ms. Ketchum?"

"The reason why I had Bulbasaur gather Ash and Tay's Pokemon is that Ash... has... passed on," Delia started to cry at the last two words. Everyone was shocked. One by one, everyone else started to cry as well, starting with Ash's Bayleef and Tay's Umbreon, Yoru. They just stood there, people and Pokemon, crying their eyes out, until, a little at a time, they cried themselves to sleep, right there in the field.

** A/N: Well, there we go with Chapter 1. I figured about 4½ pages is about right. (In case you're wondering, I took the name Yoru from Japanese for 'night'.) I'll be trying to get at least one or two reviews before I update again. Either that, or in a month. Whichever comes first. See you next time!**


	2. Chapter 2

** A/N: Hi! There aren't any reviews, and since it's been a month, I'm updating like a promised.**

** Skitty: PsychicEevee0103 does not own Pokemon! You forgot that Psychic!**

** PsychicEevee: I know, I know! I was literally just about to say that! And DON'T CALL ME PSYCHIC! I'M PSYCHICEEVEE!**

** Time to do this! Also, if you don't know already, Tay used to be an unusually small Shiny Eevee with eyes that matched her coat until she was transformed into a human, at which point she became a Pokemon Breeder, but she can still change back and forth between her forms. This information becomes vital later, you'll see why.**

(**1****st**** Person Tay's POV**)

I could see life, bustling as usual around me. It was just unfair! My adopted brother, the boy that showed me that not everyone is an enemy, my best friend, my... secret crush (okay, I've said that we're just friends in the past, but I've always had a little crush on him, even back when I was just an Eevee), was gone, and it seemed almost as if no one cared!

"Pi?" Through my depressed trance, I heard a voice, followed by a tugging at the ankle of my deep purple leggings. Looking down, I saw Pikachu, his head tilting to the side. Even though I couldn't directly understand Pikachu, I had learned after I was transformed a while back to not just rely on words, but tone and movements as well. I nodded at Pikachu, and he started to run up my body, tickling me. Pikachu stopped at my left shoulder, right where he traveled on Ash. Just that small thought made a cold fist wrap itself around my heart and squeeze.

"Pi? Pikachu pika?" Pikachu softly questioned.

"I'm fine, Pikachu... just thinking, that's all." I responded.

I knew it was wrong to lie, but I didn't want to worry Pikachu, nor my parents, who were nearby as always. (They were... more than a little overprotective.) I knew I wasn't fine, but I hoped that eventually I would be. Thinking about the future made me also think about the past, primarily when I first met Ash.

(**Begin flashback**)

_ I crouched under the big grey machine. There were several strangers (and the human that had been leaving out food for me for the past couple of weeks), and I had learned by now that strangers always meant enemies. After all, pretty much everyone that I'd ever seen was an enemy. There were six beings overall near me. That man, the oldest one there, a dark skinned boy with dark hair, the second oldest, and two that seemed to be about the same age, a boy and the only girl in the room (besides me) were the humans. There were also two Pokemon, a Pikachu and a Togepi._

_ All of them may have been enemies, but one of them, the youngest boy, had a soothing aura. He almost reminded me of my parents, from what I remembered of them. It had been so long since I had seen my parents; I had only been a baby at the time that I had been separated from them. I still couldn clearly remember how, though, I think it's because of my weird colors and those weak powers I'd been able to call on when I was surrounded by enemies, the ones that make everything not anchored to the ground fly around. Humans had been trying to take me, and my parents told me to run away, and I hadn't seen them since. I listened in on the conversation of the others in the room._

_ "Professor Oak, you said you had two favors. Taking this GS Ball to Professor Ivy is only one, so what's the other?" the dark skinned human asked._

_ "I'd like to ask if you three would mind taking someone along with you on your journey," the oldest one, Professor Oak, replied. "Eevee, come out from under there please."_

_ Needless to say, I was shocked. My fur and eyes blended in to the light grey of the machinery so well that I'd be pretty much invisible, or so I thought. I didn't think anyone could see me!_

_ I whimpered, backing further under the machine, the bottom of which cutting off my vision of the others. I continued to back up until I felt the wall touch the base of my tail._

_ "__S-stay away from me!__" I shouted, trying to sound brave. That epically failed though as my voice wobbled._

_ "It's alright Eevee, these people don't want to hurt you. They only want to meet you, to be friends." Oak tried to coax me out, but I just tried to get as much further under the machine as possible. Next to try was the girl._

_ "It's okay, Eevee. My friends and I just want to be your friends as well." She bent down so I could see her face. I flinched away, attempting to squirm back again, only to find that I was truly out of room to get away. I started to shake, fluffing out my silver fur and growling._

_ "What'd I do?" The girl, Misty I believed, murmured sadly as she pulled herself out of my view. Next was the taller boy, the one with dark brown skin and even darker brown spiky hair._

_ "I think I might know how you'll warm up to us," he said. "Have a taste of my Pokemon food. I promise you'll like it!" He pulled out a canister and a napkin. He opened the canister, pouring a portion of Pokemon food, which I remembered seeing when I was so young, back when I was with my parents. He poured the portion onto the napkin before gently sliding it over to me. I stepped forward, sniffing it. It smelled good enough, so I took an experimental bite. It was way too spicy! I coughed it out, trying not to choke._

_ "__Sorry, but it's a bit spicy for my taste,__" I said as politely as I could, trying my hardest not to make my smile look forced. Of course, the teen looked shocked._

_ "NO WAY!" he screamed. "IT DOESN'T LIKE MY POKEMON FOOD!"_

_ It was the other one's turn now, the one with the soothing aura. He bent down so we could see each other._

_ "Hello there," he started. He doesn't sound too overly hyper, and he didn't try to bribe me out. I instantly wanted to go with him, but I held out for a moment. "You don't look like you're too old, yet you're scared of people. Why are you scared of us? We're not bad. Please give us a chance."_

_ He then reached out, petting the top of my head. I flinched back at first, not used to being touched without pain following very soon after, but soon I realized that he really wouldn't hurt me, so I leaned into it. The boy smiled and beckoned me out with his other hand. I slowly padded out from the shelter of the machine. The others came into view. I could tell they were shocked by their faces._

_ "You managed to get it out Ash!" Oak complimented the boy, inadvertently telling me his name._

(**End Flashback**)

"Uh... Tay? Earth to Tay?" I zoned in to see May's hand waving in front of my face.

"I'm here!" I yell, startled.

"Where were you just now? It's obvious you weren't here," Iris asked.

"I was at an old memory," I explained. "The one of the time I first met Ash, when I was young. It took four people to get me out of hiding, and no one could until he tried."

"You were hiding? Why?" Iris asked.

"Well, you see, when Ash and I first met, I was really shy. I could barely glance at anyone without flinching. I was scared out of my fur every time anyone so much as looked at me, let alone made a sound. It was because before, I was hunted by poachers because of my odd colors. Ash protected me, helped show me that not everyone's bad." I explained.

"Wow... I didn't realize Ash was so... important to you," Iris blinked, shocked.

"Anyways, we should probably get tickets to the boat. We should probably also get a room at the Pokemon Center, 'cause I bet the next boat won't leave until at least tomorrow." I suggested. The others, including Cilan, who's been far quieter than usual, agreed, but as we were starting to head to the port to get the tickets, Cilan stopped me.

"No, Tay. We'll get the tickets. You get the room at the Pokemon Center." He gestured to first the others, then me for the second part.

"Alright. Pikachu, do you want to go with me or them?" I asked the Pokemon that was my late adopted brother's first Pokemon and best friend.

"Pi, Pikapi chuka pi chu," Pikachu told me, pointing to me. By that motion, as well as the tone of his voice, I can tell he was saying "Tay, Ash gave me to you."

"Thanks, Pikachu." I smiled at the Pokemon that was on my shoulder, one of my three walking Pokemon, as I'd once heard them called. "We'll meet up at here, okay?" (Remember, we were at the Pokemon Center.)

We split up, May, Iris, Axew, and Cilan heading to the port, while Pikachu and I went to the counter.

One slightly awkward conversation (**A/N: I'm too lazy to do this...**) later, Pikachu and I were being led to a room a bit further inside the Pokemon Center by Nurse Joy. Once we got there, Nurse Joy said, "Here's the key to the room."

"Thanks Nurse Joy," I intoned quietly. I unlocked the room, going in, and then put down my things and climbed onto one of the beds. "Cloudy, Flame, Pikachu, can you wait in the front for the others? Once they get back, bring them here, alright?"

"We're not going anywhere without you!" the two said at exactly the same time.

"No, you three go on. I want to stay here. I'll be fine," I curled up into a fetal position, staring blankly at the wall.

The two seemed to admit defeat as I heard three sets of pawsteps leading out of the room I was in. The toughest decision yet came right after that: to use my powers to shut the door or not. Normally it would be easy to use my powers, but I had a bit of a secret that no one, not even my parents, knew.

I had had my psychic powers unlocked more than a year ago, back when Ash and I had been traveling with Brock and Dawn through Sinnoh. They may have been fully unlocked, but I couldn't control them all the time. When I was upset, mostly when I became sad/depressed or angry, my powers grew far stronger, and out of my control. I didn't trust myself around people right now, when I was so depressed over Ash's death, and that was one of the reasons why I had Cloudy, Flame, and Pikachu wait for the others without me. I needed to control my emotions, control my power. Otherwise I'd hurt someone, and I didn't want to do that! I tried not to think about anything but when I was very young, between when I was separated from my parents and when I met Ash... I missed him. Ash was always so nice and funny, and even when he lost a battle, he never sulked. He just smiled and trained to get stronger, never backing down from even the smallest challenge. I always admired him for how he could turn around every single situation in a battle... I realized then I was doing exactly what I hadn't wanted to do: think about Ash.

"Tay? Why are you floating?" I snapped out of my trance to see that I was, indeed, levitating a good few inches from the bed. I quickly focused my mind to regain control of my powers. After feeling myself land on the bed, I sat up to see that the others had returned, and were all looking at me, worried.

"I have something to tell you guys," I started.

"What is it Tay?" May asked me.

"Well, you all know about how I was born as an Eevee, and had my odd psychic powers unlocked soon before I was given the power to turn into a human, right?" I lifted my left arm and gestured to the lone charm on a dark silver bracelet. It was a small, light silver Eevee, and if one looked extremely closely, they'd find it had silver eyes that were ever so slightly different from the rest of its coloration.

"Yeah, you told us about that right after we arrived in Nimbasa City," Iris said.

"And you told me when I met you in Sinnoh for the Wallace Cup," May nodded.

"Well, they may have been unlocked, but they're not under full control all the time." I continued explaining my secret.

"What do you mean?" Cilan questioned me, confused.

"You see, when I get emotional, usually sad or angry, my powers grow stronger and out of my control. That's why I always try to stay calm," I explain.

Cilan seemed to understand. "So if you're upset, your powers are uncontrollable?"

"Yeah. I can only stop myself when they grow if I seriously focus. It's nearly impossible once it comes to a point." I closed my eyes and took deep breaths, trying to remain calm.

"So do you have any idea how to be able to control it?" May sat down beside me on the bed.

"The only ways I can control my power are to keep calm or, when that fails, to focus extremely hard," I answered quietly.

"Pikachu pika chu kachu," Pikachu said. I looked to my parents for a translation.

"He said that that's why you always seemed to be meditating in the mornings," Cloudy explained.

"Yeah, Pikachu. I've taken to daily meditation to help me calm down." I smiled, then yawned. "I'm waking up really early, though."

"You should get some sleep. From what you just said, you haven't been getting much lately," May, ever sensitive, told me, standing up.

"I'm fine," I yawned, contradicting my statement.

"At least take a nap," May gently pushed me into a lying down position. Cloudy and Flame jumped on either side of me, pinning me down just enough so I couldn't sit back up, knowing I wouldn't risk taking off the ribbon to use my powers to move them.

"Fine. But just for a few hours. P-promise-" that word came out in a yawn "-you'll wake me up in a couple hours." I slid my glasses off and placed them on the bedside table.

"It's 3:00 now," Cilan said, pointing at a clock (or at least I assumed it was one; I was pretty much blind in my human form without my glasses) over the doorway. "We'll wake you at six, alright?"

"Mkay," I muttered, quickly transforming into my Pokemon form, that same silver Eevee on the charm on my bracelet that I wore in my human form. My body glowed a light silver as it shifted forms to that tiny Eevee, my birth form. My glasses glowed and were absorbed into me as I changed forms, since it was part of my body as a Pokemon. When it finished, I felt a small weight on my right ear, my old, purple ribbon. I curled up into a ball on the pillow. My parents curled around me, and May, who was obviously a little startled by my transformation (I'd forgotten for a moment that she'd never seen me transform; when we'd last met I hadn't discovered that I could change between my forms at will), then I felt a warm blanket being brought over me. I cuddled into the pillow, and let the warmth of sleep overcome me.

** A/N:**

** PsychicEevee: Well, I think a good ten or so pages are enough. I'm also going to start a Question of the Day, alright? Here's the first one...**

** Skitty: Let me Psychic! Oh please, let me!**

** PsychicEevee: Don't call me that, and get back to your own story!**

** Skitty: But it's so boring there! Let me stay here, please? *cuteifies herself***

** PsychicEevee: Curse my weakness to cuteness! Fine... make yourself useful and so the QotD, then.**

** Skitty: Yay! Thanks! Now then, the QotD is: How did Psychic do in terms of keeping everyone in character?**


	3. Chapter 3

** A/N:**

** PsychicEevee: Hello everyone! No reviews yet... PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE SOMEONE REVIEW! Anyway...**

** Disclaimer please, Skitty!**

** Skitty: PsychicEevee0103 doesn't own Pokemon! She only owns the idea, as well as Tay and her Pokemon.**

** PsychicEevee: Flames go to Kyogre to be put out, and flamers get sent on a one-way trip to the Distortion World!**

"Hello": **Normal speech**

"Hello" **Pokemon speech**

"_Hello_" **Telepathy**

** (May's POV)**

Once Cilan, Iris, and I were sure Tay was asleep, we crept out of the room. We figured we needed to get to know each other, if we were going to be traveling together for a while.

"So May, why did you begin traveling?" Iris asked.

"I enjoy traveling as a whole," I started. "I like being in new places, and meeting new people. But I'm also a Pokemon Coordinator. I've competed in Contests in the Hoenn, Kanto, Johto, and Sinnoh regions, in that order."

"So you're a Coordinator, just like Dawn?" Cilan thought out loud.

"Yes I-wait! You know Dawn?" I stammer.

Cilan explained. "We met her about a month ago, when she came to stay with the Sinnoh Champion Cynthia"-"You know Cynthia? I've only ever heard of her!" I shouted, shocked-"Yes, we met her for a little while, and anyway, we met them when Cynthia was on vacation in Undella Town in Unova, and invited Dawn to stay with her while she trained for and competed in the Junior Cup. We met up there, us two, Tay, and, well, you get the point, met up with her there. We all eventually decided to compete, ourselves. None of us won, unfortunately. One of Ash's rivals, a boy named Trip, did."

"That's too bad," I said. "So why do you two travel?"

"I travel because I'm training to be a Dragon Master alongside Axew," Iris supplied. The small dragon type (or at least I assumed it was) chose that time to pop out of Iris's huge hair and cry its (his?) name out in agreement.

"And I travel to become a better Pokemon Connoisseur," Cilan gave his answer.

"Pokemon Connoisseur?" I questioned, not knowing that profession.

"Pokemon Connoisseurs determine the compatibility between Trainers and their Pokemon, as well as determine the best Pokemon for a beginning Trainer," Cilan explained. "It's no surprise you didn't know. It's a profession not commonly known outside of Unova."

"Ah," I said. "So, do you think you could show me your Pokemon? There's still a bit of time before six." Sure enough, the clock overhead read 5:16.

"Sure. Let's let everyone out and have some late lunch." Iris licked her lips in anticipation.

"That sounds like a delicious plan to me." Cilan stood up and started to go to the yard outside the Pokemon Center.

"Does he talk like that usually?" I asked Iris as we stood up.

"He usually compares things to cooking or tastes. The normal talking you were hearing before was unusual." Iris sighed. "It's really annoying, if you ask me."

"Ax-axew." Axew agreed with a shrug. We went out of the Pokemon Center and went outside with Cilan.

"Come on out everyone!" Iris tossed three Pokeballs.

"Meet-and-greet time, everybody!" Cilan threw the same amount of Pokeballs.

"Come out and say hi, everybody!" I shouted as I tossed six Pokeballs.

Each person's Pokeballs made a different group. In Iris's group, there was a bipedal mole-like Pokemon, a huge yellow dragon I remembered to be a Dragonite, and a small black and white Pokemon that glided for a moment on membranes that went between its tiny arms and even smaller feet. Axew jumped from Iris's shoulder to join her Pokemon.

In Cilan's group was a small green Pokemon that looked like a green Aipom without a tail with a large tuft of greenery on its head, a brown and red Pokemon with a huge shell that looked like bedrock, and a brown flat fish-like Pokemon.

In my group, there was a large red, yellow, and white Pokemon with long legs, a small pink and cream cat-like Pokemon, a huge green mammalian Pokemon with a large pink flower on her back, a small blue and cream Pokemon, a dark blue turtle-like Pokemon with a long, furry tail and brown shell, and a light blue and white Pokemon that resembled a fox.

"May, this is Excadrill, Dragonite, and Emolga, and of course you know Axew." Iris pointed to each of her Pokemon in turn of when they were described above.

"And these are Pansage, Crustle, and Stunfisk." Cilan added.

"These are Blaziken, Skitty, Venusaur, Munchlax, Wartortle, and Glaceon." I concluded.

"We know about Glaceon." Cilan told me.

"They're an evolution of Eevee, right?" Iris checked.

"Yeah. They're ice types." I told them.

"Ice types?" Iris shrunk away.

"Iris doesn't like ice types," Cilan explained to clear things up.

"Oh. It's because she likes dragon types, right?" I asked.

"Yeah. She grew up around dragon types, so she has a real bond with them." Cilan elaborated.

"I don't like the cold..." Iris whimpered, scooting further away from my group.

"Glaceon's not going to hurt you. She's really very gentle," I said, trying to calm Iris down.

"Gla-glace," Glaceon murmured.

"O-okay," Iris slowly stood back up and came back to the group. "May, do you think you could show us a Contest Appeal round?"

"Sure. Wartortle, on stage!" I called. My faithful and lovable Pokemon stepped up onto the battlefield.

"Jump up and use Rapid Spin!" Wartortle jumped high into the air, withdrew into her shell, and started to spin. "Now use Bubble!" Large bubbles came out of the shell, spinning around the battlefield.

"Finish it up with Ice Beam!" I shouted. Wartortle came out of her shell. A light blue beam of ice energy came from right outside her mouth and froze the bubbles. Wartortle, who had been suspended in midair the while time, landed within the bubbles in a pose with her arms up over her head, a large smile gracing her features.

"And that's how it's done!" I smiled. Iris and Cilan were clapping.

"Bravo!" Cilan cheered.

Cilan checked his watch. "It's almost six. We need to wake Tay up. After all, we can't break a promise."

We went back inside the Pokemon Center, and back to our room. Inside, Tay was still sleeping like a Snorlax, minus the snoring. She was whimpering instead. It seemed the others were quietly talking.

Iris walked up. "We're back guys. And in time to wake Tay up." She glanced at the clock, as did all the ones that were awake. It read 5:45.

"Por, va por poreon," Cloudy, Tay's Vaporeon, nudged her child softly with her nose.

The silver lump stirred, Tay muttering in telepathy (I had been pretty shocked back when I learned she could use that as an Eevee back in the Sinnoh region during the Wallace Cup), "_Don' wanna wake up..._"

"You only wanted to take a nap. You wanted us to wake you up at or before six, it's five forty-five," I reminded her.

Tay stood up, shook out her fur, and stretched. "_Thanks for waking me up._" She jumped off the bed, glowing silver. By the time she landed, Tay was in her human form. She spoke verbally, not needing to use telepathy as a human. "I need to meditate for a little while." She gently nudged Cloudy, Flame, and Pikachu off the bed, and climbed back onto it in a lotus position. It looked like she was asleep again when she closed her eyes, except that she was sitting straight, and her head was held high. If Tay was asleep, she would've been slumping over, and her head would've been hanging.

The time passed, and at dinner when we dragged Tay out of her meditation, I finally got to taste Cilan's cooking, and it really lived up to its reputation! I told him just that.

Cilan seemed to blush. "Your compliment is very much appreciated."

After dinner, we decided to have a couple of battles. Both Iris and Cilan wanted to battle me, but Tay just went back to meditation after letting out her Pokemon: an orange Pokemon that looked like a baby deer with a pink flower on its head and a dark brown, sand colored, and blue canine Pokemon. She called the pink one "Meta" and the canine "Fang" I didn't take them as their species names, though, since I knew that Tay nicknamed her Pokemon. Tay told her Pokemon to relax or do training if they wanted to. The pink Pokemon, which Iris explained was called a Deerling, decided to have a battle with my Skitty, while the other one, which Cilan told me was was a Herdier, battled with Cilan's Pansage. I made sure my Pokemon were set as I sent Munchlax into battle against Cilan's Crustle.

** A/N:**

** PsychicEevee: Hi! I'm not very good at writing battles, so I've decided to skip these small training battles. Don't worry, we'll see plenty... eventually. No QotD today. Don't forget to drop a review on your way out!**


	4. Chapter 4

** A/N:**

** PsychicEevee: Hello! It was tough writing May's POV, and since I'm aiming to focus on Tay, most of the chapters will be in Tay's POV. Of course, I don't own Pokemon, only Tay and her Pokemon. Still no reviews. For the second chapter in a row, I'm begging you, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE REVIEW!**

** Well, here we go!**

** (Tay's POV)**

The next day, we went on the plane to Kanto, Ash's body in a casket. The ride was rather uneventful. We all sat on the same row, with Iris, Cilan, and May on one side, and Cloudy, Flame, Pikachu, and me on the other. I decided to get a bit of rest during the flight.

I woke up to being gently shaken. I opened my eyes, glad I had forgotten to take off my glasses off for the flight.

"Wake up, Tay. We made it to Pallet Town," Iris said. I blinked and shook my head to get rid of my grogginess.

"I'm up." I looked out the window to see that we had landed. I took off my seat belt and stood up, stretching.

"I suppose we should... meet your other Pokemon, as well as meeting Ms. Ketchum in person." Cilan started out. We all followed him out of the plane.

A little while later, we were in the urban area of Pallet. We started walking, with my parents and me leading the way. We retrieved the casket after an awkward conversation about the contents, we headed out. A few hours later, we were home. Delia's Mr. Mime, which she sometimes called Mimey, was sweeping the front yard.

"Mr. Mime! We're back!" I shouted ahead, running up to him with my Pokemon following.

"Mime? Mr Mime!" he dropped the broom and engulfed me in a tight embrace as I came up to him.

"I'm glad to be back too, but, please stop!" I asked him nicely. Mr. Mime pulled away from the tight hug, which made me glad because he was suffocating me. As soon as he did, I went up to the door and, using the spare key under the flower pots, opened it.

"I'm home!" I said uncertainly. The sound of my voice felt hollow to me. "I brought guests."

"A-Tay?" I heard Ms. Ketchum's (**A/N: From here on out, I'm going to call her Delia, to save my fingers from some typing) **voice. "You're home! And you brought your friends!"

"And we brought... him," Iris gestured as best she could to the casket, which she, May, and Cilan were carrying. (They'd decided that I didn't have to carry it.)

"I've made a space for it to go. I've already made the arrangements. He'll be... put to rest next week, to enable everyone that wants to come time to get here." Delia guided us to a large space in the living room that had been cleared out. "We've called everyone that had one of ... Ash's Pokemon, and informed them about what happened. They'll all be here within the next couple days."

"We need to call Brock, Misty, and Dawn. They need to know," I thought out loud. "I think I should be the one to tell Brock."

"Alright. I'll call Dawn." Iris nodded.

"I'll call Misty," May spoke up.

"That's a good idea. We've never met her, so receiving a call from someone she knows rather than a total stranger saying Ash is dead. Both of them would leave bitter aftertastes, but hearing Iris or I tell them would be even worse, because she doesn't know us." Cilan pondered.

"Yeah, Misty doesn't know my human form either, as I got the ability to be a human after the last time I saw her." I added.

"Oh?" Iris asked. She was prodding, but I elaborated for her.

"The last time I saw Misty was when Ash, Pikachu, and I were going through Kanto, because Ash was battling in a Battle Frontier. I got my human form when we went through the Sinnoh region, which is what we did right after Ash got all the Frontier Symbols." Seeing the confused look on Iris's face, I explained about the Battle Frontier. "Battle Frontiers are pretty much like Region Leagues." Getting back to the manner at hand, I said, "Let's make the calls."

** A/N:**

** PsychicEevee: Hello! The next chapter will have the calls in it, so there'll be three short POVs. Skitty, the QotD, if you please!**

** Skitty: Okay!**

** QotD: Is this story too angsty?**


	5. Chapter 5

** A/N:**

** PsychicEevee: Hello! STILL no reviews. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE, I'm begging you, REVIEW! Just say 'It's good' or something. Praise me, scold me, I DON'T CARE AT THIS POINT! How about this, the first person with an account to review gets an OC. There's just one catch: it won't appear until at least Chapter 21, since that's what I'm up to.  
**

** Raion: PsychicEevee0103 does not own Pokemon! She only owns Tay, her Pokemon, and the idea!**

** PsychicEevee: Flames go to Kyogre to be put out, and flamers get sent on a one-way trip to the Distortion World!**

(**Misty's POV**)

I was trying to persuade Psyduck to get into the pool, but as usual, it refused to get any further than the first step, where the water was barely lapping over its webbed feet.

"Come on Psyduck, it feels good to be in the water," I coaxed.

"Psy! Psy-yi-yi!" Psyduck yelled, not moving an inch. Just then, Daisy strolled into the pool room.

"Misty, you have a call," she shouted over to me before heading out.

I left the pool room and headed to the video phone. Sure enough, there was a familiar-looking girl on the other end.

"May!" I shouted as soon as I realized who it was. "It's been ages since we talked, hasn't it?"

May seemed really different. She had been bubbling with energy the last time I had seen her, but she seemed really serious and sad now.

"Misty, I... have some horrible news to share." May didn't look up for more than a second. "I hate to be the bringer of bad news, but..."

"What?" I asked quietly.

"Ash... is..." I only heard two of the three words May spoke.

"What happened to Ash?" I asked her, worried out of my mind for my old friend.

"He's..." May's voice was still hardly above a whisper. "Dead..."

"No... no... no..."My eyes widened and I felt a tear slip down my cheek as a mirror image of it appeared on May's face. "It can't be..."

"His funeral is going to be next week here in Pallet Town. I'm guessing you're going to come." May told me.

"I'll come, and I'll bring my sisters as well." I replied. "I'm sure the Gym will survive a few days without the Gym Leaders."

"Okay. You'll have to get through Mt. Moon and the Viridian Forest, right? I hope you'll make it on time!" May gave a very weak smile. "Good luck, and hopefully, I'll see you in a week." The video phone clicked off.

(**3****rd**** Person Brock's POV**)

Brock was wrapping up a report on the various ways to cure a Pokemon of paralysis when he heard the video phone ring. Since his parents and all of his little brothers and sisters except Forrest were out of town for the week, he took a short break to check who was calling. Brock stood up, stretched, and went into the living room to check the video phone.

"Tay?" Brock asked in disbelief as soon as he saw who was calling. "How've you and Ash been?"

"I've been pretty well, but Ash..." Tay trailed off, not meeting Brock's eyes. She was greatly changed from the last time he'd seen her. She used to be rather energetic and cheerful, but now she was rather depressed looking, as were Cloudy, Flame, and Pikachu.

"What happened to Ash?" Brock questioned, instantly worried by her behavior.

"He's... dead..." Tay's voice was barely above a whisper as tears streaked down her cheeks.

"No... It can't be..." Brock felt a duo of tears trickle down his cheeks as well.

"The funeral's next week in Pallet Town. I assume you're coming?" Tay informed him.

"I'll leave as soon as I can. My teachers will understand if I can't be there for roughly a week for this." Brock said. "I'll start to pack right away." With that, he gave a nod to say goodbye and switched off the video phone.

(**Dawn's POV**)

I was at home, resting for a bit after coming in the Top 4 of the Hoenn Grand Festival, having been beaten by a green-haired boy with a Roserade. Now that I was home, I was looking at all the Seals I had for my Pokeball Capsules and thinking about all my Pokemon and their moves, and how I could pair them even better to make even better appeals and combos for battles when the video phone rang downstairs.

My mom answered.

"Hello?" she asked. I couldn't hear exactly what the voice on the other end said, but a minute later Mom called, "Dawn! There's someone on the phone for you!"

"Coming!" I shouted as I hopped off the chair by my desk and almost jumped down the stairs. I took the phone part from Mom as I got in front of the screen. To my surprise, it was someone I had met not long ago.

"Iris?" I asked the girl with the Axew on the other end. She seemed different though. Iris used to be very energetic and excitable, but she seemed really reserved now.

"Yeah." Iris said. "I hate to be the bringer of bad news, but Ash is..." I couldn't hear her last word.

"Could you... repeat that last word please?" I asked quietly.

"Ash is... dead," The word was still barely audible, but I could make it out this time.

"Um... you didn't say, 'dead' right?" I tried to keep my voice calm, but it wobbled.

"I'm afraid it's true. You might want to consider buying tickets for the next plane to the Kanto region, 'cause the funeral's next week here in Pallet Town." Iris sighed, tears trickling down her cheeks.

"I'll be there. I'll start packing right away," I said before hanging up.

**A/N:**

** PsychicEevee: Hello! This is really short, but I felt this would be enough for a chapter. No QotD today, so see you next time!**


	6. Chapter 6

** A/N:**

** PsychicEevee: Hello! I've had really big exams recently (as of when this was written several months ago; I have a habit of stockpiling chapters), which I always finish early, but I have to stay quiet for at least 80 minutes, but I always finish the test in at most 30! It is so ANNOYING! However, I can take the rest of the time to think of new plots for my stories, so now I know where this story is going! (EDIT: This is very very very old!) This chapter's the funeral, and bear in mind I have never been to a funeral, I've only read about them. Here are the responses to reviews:**

** ShinyMudkip25: Yep, and about it being so similar, I'm sorry. Back when I wrote this I wasn't that good an author. And yes, Pikachu's going through quite a lot right now. After all, he's lost his Trainer and best friend and he's gotten a new Trainer in Ash's adopted sister. Thanks for reviewing, and your OC will appear (a lot) later in the story. Sorry, I've pre-written a bunch of it already!**

** Guest: Thanks for reviewing!**

** Another Guest: Thanks for the compliment, but this is very old and not very good compared to my most recent stuff. And as you can tell, there is more. thanks for reviewing!**

** Anyway, I don't own Pokemon, just Tay and her specific Pokemon. Also, Flames go to Kyogre to be put out, and flamers get sent on a one-way trip to the Distortion World! Just thought I'd point it out. Enjoy!**

(**Tay's POV**)

A day passed, and almost everyone arrived. May had called her family, Brock and the eldest of his brothers, and Dawn all came at various times between 11 AM and 3 PM. May's family came first, and instantly greeted everyone, including me. Norman, Caroline, and Max all were surprised to see me as a human considering they all had only known me as a Pokemon before now. Next were Brock and his oldest brother, who were happy enough to see us, though they were both were very upset over Ash's death. _I still can't believe it._ Dawn was the last to arrive, and she seemed shocked, acting slightly robotically. Misty hadn't arrived by the end of the day. In a chat, I noted this.

"It makes sense, though," I thought out loud. "After all, she needs to go through both Mt. Moon and the Viridian Forest, both of which are like mazes, and her going though Viridian Forest will take longer than usual since Misty's afraid of bugs."

"I remember that," May smiled a little. "When we were fighting those Ninjask and that Shedinja in the Togepi Kingdom, Misty completely freaked out. She also said when I called her yesterday that she's coming with her sisters, by the way."

"Oh," I acknowledged. I had never personally met Misty's sisters, but I remembered Misty talking about how bossy and rude they were to her.

(**Time Skip: 2 Days**)

I glanced at the calendar in my room when I woke up and gasped softly. It was the day of the funeral, and Misty hadn't arrived! Everyone else that Ash was close friends or even rivals with (like Barry) had arrived, yet she and her sisters were missing! Out of the corner of my eye I noticed glowing by my wrist, and instantly started to try to calm down, scrambling into a lotus position on my bed and starting my morning meditation.

After about an hour of meditation, I stood up and got dressed in a knee-length black dress, putting my silver hair into a ponytail. As I dressed, my Pokemon started stirring from various positions around the room.

Wake up guys! It's time for breakfast!" I went around and gently stirred them.

"Pi? Pi, kachu pika chu," Pikachu looked around, disoriented for a moment, until he realized what had happened and what day it is.

"Yeah, Pikachu, it's the day of the funeral." I looked down.

"Tay! Breakfast is ready!" Delia appeared at my door as my parents stood up and stretched.

"Okay," I beckoned over my shoulder. My parents walked by me as Pikachu jumped on my shoulder.

There was a knock at the door as we finished breakfast. Delia stood up to answer it, and I followed. In front of the door stood a familiar face, a girl with orange hair in a ponytail on the side, as well as three other girls that looked considerably more feminine.

"Misty!" Delia smiled, looking around at the other girls. "And I assume these are your sisters?"

"Yep!" the tomboy answered.

"I'm Lily," the pink haired one smiled.

"I'm Daisy," the yellow haired sister pointed to herself.

"And I'm Violet. It's nice to meet you," the indigo-haired one concluded.

"It's nice to meet all of you too," Delia gestured inside. "Come in, please."

Once we were all seated, Lily asked me, "What's your name?"

"I'm Tay. I was Ash's traveling companions for about three years." I gave a small, tight-lipped smile. "Right before he... passed... he told Pikachu to stay with me."

"Wait... three years? That's how long ago I traveled with Ash! But... how...?" Misty looked puzzled. I took off my bracelet, held it so the charm was between my two hands, and showed it to Misty, who gasped.

"Ee-Eevee?" she questioned, eyes wide.

"That's me!" I made my voice a bit too bright. "A little while after we split up, about seven months actually, I was transformed into a human. I found out later I could go back and forth between my forms."

"That is so... cool," Misty smiled. "Now, Mrs. Ketchum, could we please go to separate rooms so we could change into proper clothes for the... event?" They were all holding small cloth bags. "We would have gotten rooms in a hotel, but since we've come on the day of the funeral, we've decided we can only stay for that, and have to leave pretty much as soon as the funeral's over."

"Of course. This way," Delia led the four girls upstairs. A few minutes later, they came back downstairs, Misty in a black shirt and black shorts, and her sisters in black dresses of certain lengths. (**A/N: These are anime length dresses. You know what size they are.**) We left the house and walked about ten minutes to the cemetery. There was already a decent sized crowd gathered. We went to the front of the crowd.

The priest started to talk, but I didn't listen. Instead, I just kept my head bowed as I thought of all the times I shared with Ash, from meeting him right before he traveled to the Orange Islands to right before he died. _I wouldn't change a thing. Well, except for that one last day..._ The priest asked if anyone wanted to say a few words to commemorate Ash's memory. I looked up.

"I'd like to say something," I stepped forward. The priest nodded, so after stepping to be a few yards in front of everyone, I turned around and began to speak.

"Ash was brave and determined. He always believed in fighting for what's right, and he died rescuing a stolen Pokemon. He may have been a little impulsive, but more often than not that quality led to success rather than failure in his many battles. He always tried to be the best, and wouldn't let anything stand in his way. Despite all of this, he was very gentle, and funny, and always saw the best in people and Pokemon alike. He shall always be missed by all of his close friends and family.

"My life was changed by him. I grew up different, afraid of everyone. Ash was my first friend, and he showed me that there is light in this world. Now then, if I may, I know a song that fits to say goodbye in a way mere words cannot express." I glanced at the priest, who nodded, before continuing.

_"I close my eyes and I can see the day we met,  
Just one moment and I knew:  
You're my best friend, do anything for you._

_We've gone so far and done so much  
And I feel like we've always been together.  
Right by my side through thick and thin,  
You're the part of my life I'll always remember."_

Tears were starting to form from my eyes, and my voice shook.

_"The time has come,  
It's for the best, I know it.  
Who could have guessed that you and I -  
Somehow, someday, we'd have to say goodbye._

_You've helped me find the strength inside  
And the courage to make my dreams come true.  
How will I find another friend like you?_

__ Those tears started to fall.

_Two of a kind, that's what we are,  
And it seems like we were always winning.  
But as our team is torn apart,  
I wish we could go back to the beginning._

_The time has come,  
It's for the best, I know it.  
Who could have guessed that you and I -  
Somehow, someway, we'd have to say goodbye._

_Somehow today, we have to say goodbye."_

With that, I went back into the crowd, not listening to the rest of it, acting robotically as Delia led me home after the funeral ended. When we got home, I resumed my meditation.

**A/N:**

** PsychicEevee: Hello... this chapter has me bummed...**

** Skitty: Psychic! If you're sad, let's play! I'll make you happy~**

** PsychicEevee: *lifts Skitty behind her fourth wall* I'm just not in the mood to deal with you right now... and what have I said about calling me Psychic? Anyway, that song I had Tay sing is, as any Pokemon fan knows, called "The Time Has Come", and was featured in the episode "Pikachu's Goodbye" when Ash was trying to release Pikachu. In my opinion, it is almost the saddest song ever, but I felt this one was more appropriate than the other for these circumstances. Anyway, here's the QOTD:**

** What do you think is going to happen?**


	7. Chapter 7

** A/N:**

** PsychicEevee: Hello! I've cheered up a little since last chapter, even though it'll be sad every time I read it, and considering I read this every day I write to think of what just happened and what I can do next, I'm not going to be as happy from now on... This chapter includes a bit of a plot twist, and shows a bit of Tay's hidden past. Here are the responses to reviews:**

** Shinymudkip25: Yes. Very sad. I recently reread it, and it gave me feels for my own designs. And to be honest, the saddest song I mentioned was based on Pokemon too. It was in the credits of the first movie. It's called 'If Only Tears Could Bring You Back' and it's by Midnight Sons. Before anyone asks, I didn't have Tay sing that one because she was trying to keep her love for Ash (as more than a friend or even relative) a secret. She would've given it away had she sung that song. And as you can see, you're about to find out what's about to happen.**

** Raion, the disclaimer please, and NO FUNNY BUSINESS!**

** Raion: Sure thing! PsychicEevee0103 does not own Pokemon, only Tay, Cloudy, and Flame.**

** PsychicEevee: Good! Thanks Raion. Flames go to Kyogre to be put out, and flamers get sent on a one way trip to the Distortion World. Enjoy, and don't forget to review!**

(**Tay's POV**)

It was a month since the funeral. I could feel myself getting sicker, but I had to keep doing my daily meditation and exercise. I kept getting nightmares, and I now slept on a mat, to prevent myself from falling off the bed and getting hurt, and I'd told my Pokemon not to sleep around me, since I didn't want them to get hurt, either.

One day, I told Delia I was going for a run. It was nothing unusual, since I went out for runs every day, but something... happened along the way.

I was about a mile away from Pallet Town, about to head back, when I tripped on the path and fell, my ribbon becoming undone. I tried to reach with my left hand to retie it, but I couldn't move my hand. This made me panic, since I knew without the ribbon being held down, a simple breeze could blow it away, and it was vital to me. I managed to stretch out my neck and grab it with my teeth. As soon as I did that, I passed out.

(**Delia's POV**)

An hour passed, then two, and I started to worry. Usually, Tay was back after an hour or so. After the hour mark, Cloudy and Flame had run off. I got Mimey and Pikachu and went to Professor Oak's laboratory. Once he let me in, explaining to me that Tracey was running an errand for him at Mt. Moon, I told him what happened.

"That's not good at all," he murmured once I explained it to him. "We should send out some of the Pokemon to act as search parties."

"That's a good idea. Cloudy and Flame have already gone out to look." I explained, even though I was getting frantic with worry as we went outside and asked Bulbasaur to gather all the Pokemon.

We explained it again as they came up, and split everyone into groups of two or three, sending the flying Pokemon to search from the air as we dispersed.

(**Pikachu's POV**)

I was paired up with Sceptile. Delia had picked us to be together because I could track Tay's scent, and Sceptile could help to carry her back if need be. _I hope it doesn't come to that._ I was scared for what could have happened to her, but that was nothing in comparison to Cloudy and Flame. They ran off as soon as they realized Tay was missing.

"Where should we look?" Sceptile asked me.

"Well, I don't think she would have gone off the path," I started. "Or at least, not too far. So we should start be looking through the paths, then spread the search from there."

"Good plan." Sceptile nodded, then started off on the main path out of Pallet Town. I followed quickly, sniffing for Tay's scent. I caught it almost as soon as we approached the path, and I quickly told Sceptile this. He let me lead as I tracked it, walking slowly with my nose to the ground.

About an hour later, Tay's scent became far more pronounced. I looked up, and there she was, in a small pile right on the path with her arms and neck stretched out. Tay's ribbon was in her mouth, which I found odd but didn't question. Sceptile and I ran up to her. She was moaning and whimpering softly. _She must be having one of her nightmares again,_ I thought. Recently Tay had started to have nightmares, though she hadn't told anyone about what happened in them yet. I eased the ribbon out of Tay's mouth, but my tail brushed her forehead as I did so. I gasped and let go of the ribbon.

"She's burning up!" I shouted, my eyes wide.

"We need to get her back right away!" Sceptile picked Tay up in his arms.

"You take Tay and go on ahead. I'll catch up." I shouted.

"You go to the lab; I'm going to the house to put her in bed." Sceptile started to jump through the trees back to Pallet Town, Tay in his arms. I raced after him, and when we got to the town, I broke off his path and hared to the laboratory.

Delia and Professor Oak looked at me as soon as I got over to them. They were still in the yard.

"Pikachu? Why are you back so soon, and in such a rush?" the professor asked me.

Between my pants, I responded, "We found... Tay... Sceptile's... with her... at the house!" I motioned with my tail for them to follow me, and ran in the direction of the house. I heard a couple sets of footsteps behind me, but I didn't slow down. I stopped right in front of the house. The door was open. I raced straight in and upstairs to Tay's room.

Sceptile was leaning over the bed. I ran over to the table next to her bed, where Sceptile had placed Tay's glasses. Careful not to knock them over, I jumped onto the table. Tay was lying down, Sceptile holding her down as he gently restrained her. (She was trying to flail around, seeming to fight something in her nightmare.) Her face was contorted in pain as she gasped for breath.

Delia came into the room, followed by Professor Oak. They both gasped when they got close enough to see Tay's condition.

"We need ice. There should be some in the freezer. Professor, could you get it and put it in a bag?" Delia put a hand on Tay's forehead for a second before taking it off. Oak rushed to get it. "Pikachu, can you go to the lab and when the other Pokemon come back, tell them about what happened. Tell them not to come, though. It'll be too crowded otherwise." As I turned to go, I heard Delia continuing to Sceptile, "Can you find Cloudy and Flame? I doubt they'll come back until they've found Tay, so you'll need to get them."

(**Tay's POV**)

I was engulfed in a sea of memories, and none of them were pleasant. They were all my bad memories from before I met Ash. I tried to get to my better, happier ones, but I simply lacked the strength. _Why didn't I rest before?_ I tried not to focus on any particular memory, but I couldn't help it. Before my eyes flashed an old memory, from about a week after I had been forced to leave my parents.

(**Cue Flashback**)

_I ran through the scratchy bushes, tripping over tree roots as I ran to get away from the Beedrill. I had accidentally angered by them by walking on one of their stingers. _I didn't mean it!_ I winced as more low-hanging branches scratched my face._

_ "__Get back here!__" they buzzed. Suddenly, another swarm of them popped up in front of me. I screamed in fear, no words, just a scream._

_ "__We have you now!__" they droned. "__You shall pay for harming a member of the swarm.__"_

_ They closed in, their stingers poised to strike. Knowing I was trapped, I curled up tight in a ball and braced myself for pain._

_ The Beedrill started to jab me again and again with their stingers. I cried and whimpered in pain as they struck me again and again, venom sometimes leaking in with the stings. _It hurts so much... I didn't mean it! _I started to sob as I cried._

_ Suddenly, the stings stopped. I looked up to see that each of the Beedrill was surrounded in a light blue glow. Frightened, I looked around as the Beedrill was forced away by that glow, the same one that had occurred on the humans' Pokemon, the last time I had seen my Mommy and Daddy. _

(**End Flashback**)

I whimpered, shutting my eyes before opening them again to another memory.

(**Cue Flashback**)

_My paws dragged as_ _I searched for a good place to rest for the night. It had been a year since I had been forced away from my parents, and I hadn't stopped traveling since. Eventually I found a huge grey cave, considerably darker than my fur, which was so light it was almost glowing. I shook it out before practically collapsing on the spot and falling asleep._

_ (__**Time Skip**__)_

_ I woke to a roar. Opening my eyes, I saw a huge brown Pokemon with thick arms, a heavy-looking body, and long claws. My eyes widened, and I leaped up and started to run._

_ "__Get back here, runt!__" it-he-shouted as I raced away. A few moments later, I felt a huge and powerful force sweep me off my paws and onto the ground, giving me a faceful of dirt._

_ "__You're gonna pay for intruding on my home!__" he roared, using his claws to throw me up and slash me multiple times, giving me multiple cuts before slamming me onto the ground again, making the cuts burn as soil mixed with blood._

_ I attempted to stand, but my legs buckled as soon as I my body got off the ground._

_ "__Please,__" I panted. "__I didn't know... it was your cave...__"_

_ "__LIES!__" I was slammed again by that force that had prevented my escape, a large sphere of light blue energy. As I landed, feeling dirt spray on my face and cuts, a tear slipped down my cheek._

_ The beating continued just like that, with me taking every blow, being unable to stay conscious to know when, exactly, the Pokemon got bored and decided I had been beaten into a fine enough pulp._

(**End flashback**)

"No... no..." I whimpered, squeezing my eyes together and curling into a ball. "Don't... please..." I had tried so hard to keep those memories blocked, but like a cracked dam, they were flooding my mind. Another flashback rolled in.

(**Cue Flashback**)

_I was in a huge underground room, with so many big, mean Pokemon in cages around me. Behind a clear wall were several humans, I couldn't see their faces in the darkness, but I knew they were there. One of the humans pushed a button, and all the cages opened. All the huge, scarred Pokemon prowled out, knotty muscles rippling under their unkempt pelts. In total, there were five Arcanine, three Mightyena, and four Houndoom. They instantly recognized me as prey, something to beat up on. I shut my eyes and braced myself._

_ The first hit I felt was blistering heat as I was burned in almost every part of my body. The Arcanine and Houndoom were using Flamethrower. Once that stopped I was bitten in multiple spots such as my ears, tail, and body. Several of these spots burned or shocked me. I screamed in pure pain. I struggled to my paws and fired off my new move, something I had heard being called Shadow Ball, which was a sphere of purple and black shadow energy being formed by my mouth and then being fired off to the enemy. However, I missed entirely. After about three Shadow Balls, which all missed, I was tackled by two of the Mightyena. I hit the wall and slid down it, only to be met with a Fire Fang halfway down. I slumped down._

_ "__Why...?__" I croaked. _Why does everyone hate me?

(**End Flashback**)

I squeezed my eyes as tightly as I could, and curled up into a tiny ball, noting I was in my human form.

"No... stop... please..." I mumbled, but it was in vain as the worst and most recent memory yet popped into my head.

(**Cue Flashback**)

_"Stop, Team Rocket!" Ash yelled up at the three figures in the Meowth balloon. "Give back Liligant!"_

_ "Finders keepers, losers weepers!" they shouted in reply._

_ "Pikachu, use Thunderbolt!" Ash told his loyal companion, who jumped up and shot an electrical beam at Team Rocket. However, Meowth pressed a button, and a panel that looked like a solar panel popped up and absorbed the Thunderbolt._

_ "This Power Absorption Panel takes any attack you throw at us and returns it however many times more powerful WE want it to be!" Jessie shouted, turning a switch. "Let's try... four!"_

_ "Jessie, don't you think that's just a little bit overkill?" James asked. I almost smiled. _I know a little about James' past. If it hadn't been so messed up, he just might've been a better person_,_ _I pondered._

_ "NO!" Jessie yelled, and James cowered and nodded timidly. The panel sent a beam four times as large as the Thunderbolt, straight at Pikachu._

_ "__PIKA!__" Pikachu screamed in fear._

_ Everyone was frozen, everyone except for one brave soul, who jumped in the way of the electricity at the last second, and got electrocuted instead._

_ "ASH!" I screamed._

_ Ash was barely able to speak. "Pikachu... go with... Tay..." He slowly pulled out something and threw it to me. Startled though I was, I caught it. Looking at it, I realized it was a Pokeball I had never seen before, one with a lightning bolt mark on it. Dread coursed through me as I realized which Pokemon it belonged to: Pikachu. The electrocution ceased and Ash slumped down, not moving or even breathing, smoke coming from his hair and clothes._

_ I raced over to him faster than a Rapidash. "ASH! NO! ASH!" I screamed, falling onto his... body... looking for a pulse._

_ There wasn't one._

_ It was then that my shock turned to sheer rage. I stood up and faced the Meowth balloon. "Team Rocket," I said VERY SLOWLY, enunciating each and every syllable. "You see this?" I lifted my right wrist, which had a very brightly glowing purple ribbon on it. They nodded fearfully, clinging onto each other. "It is the only thing preventing me from using all of my powers on you, to send you to where you sent Ash. If it is not touching me directly, my powers would all be focused on destroying you. You don't want that, do you?" They shook their heads in unison. "Good. Now then, put Liligant down and get out of my sight, or I'll send it to the wind." The balloon lowered and dropped Liligant once it was a safe distance away from the ground, then the balloon zoomed away. Until they were out of sight, I glared daggers at them, one hand on my ribbon._

_ As soon as they were out of sight, my fury abated, and the shock returned. I collapsed onto Ash's body, sobbing. "Ash... Ash... Ash..." My tears flowed freely._

(**End Flashback**)

"NO!" I screeched, but that memory, the worst of all of them, kept playing, over and over. "STOP! PLEASE!" Eventually I was granted my wish, and floated into sweet unconsciousness.

(**Cloudy's POV**)

Sceptile had brought me and Flame home a couple hours ago saying Tay had been found, but was sick. That last word had brought Flame and me home faster than you could say "what". Sure enough, Tay had a huge fever, and seemed in a serious nightmare. _This has only happened once before... when she first became a human! Even then, her fever wasn't this serious, though..._ I thought.

Flame and I were fussing around, trying to see if our baby was okay, when we were sent away by Professor Oak.

"I'm sorry, I know you must be worried. However, could you get Aisu from the lab?" he asked gently.

"Let's go." I told Flame, gesturing to the door of Tay's room. We ran out, down the stairs, and out of the house.

We raced as fast as we could to the building, where Tracey was there, confused. He turned to us when he saw us and asked, "Cloudy, Flame, where's Professor Oak, Tay, and everyone else?"

"Tay... fever... her house... we need Aisu...!" Flame shouted, panting from the exhausting run there.

"Something abut Tay?" Something bad?" Tracey guessed. I nodded before running past him to the yard.

"Bulbasaur! We need Aisu!" I shouted as soon as he got within sight. To his credit, Bulbasaur didn't question me, only sent a puff of light blue pollen into the air. A few minutes later, the ice type ran up to us.

"What do you need, Bulbasaur?" she questioned before seeing Flame and me looking so frantic.

"We need you at Ms. Ketchum's house ASAP!" Flame shouted before turning to head back to the house and Tay. I motioned with my tail for Aisu to follow before heading off as well, jumping over the fence in my hurry. The sound of pawsteps behind me informed me that Aisu was indeed following my lead.

After another couple minutes' run, we made it to the house and jumped in an open window, followed by Aisu. We ran up the stairs to Tay's room.

"Good job you two," Professor Oak gave a tense smile at Flame and me. "Aisu, we need your help. Tay's very sick and we need ice for ice packs right away."

Pikachu ran out of the room. Confused, I waited a few moments until Pikachu returned, holding a roll of plastic wrap in his paws.

"Good thinking Pikachu. We can put ice in between two layers of plastic wrap, and it'll help cool Tay down." the Professor praised. The humans in the room pulled out about a yard of plastic wrap and had Aisu use her Ice Beam on about half of it, forming a solid sheet of ice. They folded the other half of the plastic wrap over the ice, crimped the edges shut, and slipped it under Tay's head. It might've been my imagination, but she seemed to breathe a little easier, literally.

**A/N:**

** PsychicEevee: Well, there we go. Here's the QotD:**

** What Pokemon do you think you are? Not really related to the story, but I want to hear other people's opinions.**


	8. Chapter 8

** PsychicEevee: Hello! This chapter was originally part of Chapter 7 before I realized it was getting to be about twice the length of most of my chapters, so I split it. I'm posting this now to ease some nerves because I have a test tomorrow that's gonna affect where I go to high school (I'm in 8th grade), and I'm excited, nervous, and scared at the same time, so I decided to post this. (Plus posting and seeing your reviews might help the writer's block I'm currently afflicted by.) Here's my response to the one review the last chapter got:**

** Shinymudkip25: Thanks! And I feel I should answer it too. I admit that when I wrote this, I wasn't a very good author (right now, it's about a year and a half old) so I just put myself as the main character. Meaning, I see myself as an Eevee. Thanks for reviewing!**

** Disclaimer: I, PsychicEevee0103, don't own or claim to own Pokemon!**

** Flames get doused by Kyogre, and Flamers get sent on a one way trip to the Distortion World!**

(**Time Skip: 2 days**)

(**Tay's POV**)

I had lost track of time in this infinite nightmare. I kept seeing every bad memory from my life, weakening me every time. I was struggling not to break down, but after some amount of time, I did, crying and begging for this to stop.

I didn't know how long I was crying, pleading for mercy, but eventually I stopped seeing these memories. I opened my eyes to see that I was in a blank white space.

"W-what happened?" I wondered out loud.

"I heard your plea," a voice replied. I couldn't tell how the voice sounded; I just knew someone was there.

"Who are you?" I asked out loud.

"I have been watching you." the voice continued as a figure appeared. I couldn't make out any details except that it was humanoid, even though I wasn't sure whether or not it was a human. "You have been chosen, Tay."

"Chosen? What do you mean?" I wondered.

"You are part of a prophecy. Every thousand years, a great evil rises, and fifteen years before, a single Pokemon, still in its Egg, is chosen to save the world. That Pokemon is granted very special powers, and it can be easily identified because its coloration becomes silver, as opposed to its normal coloration." the entity explained. "Tay, you were the one chosen. In a year and a half the great evil shall rise, and you must be ready." Needless to say, I was startled, but not shocked, since I'd seen goodness knows how many prophecies unfold before. (**A/N: I'm counting the movies as canon.**)

"I will. I'll train as much as possible until then, I promise." I nodded.

"I believe it is about time you woke up. I imagine your family and friends are very worried by now." the entity, a shadow in a white world, started to glow just that color, pure white. I shut my eyes against the blinding white light, and when I opened my eyes again, I was in what I assumed was my room.

I blinked my eyes open and looked around as best I could, automatically knowing I was in my human form since my vision was blurry. I could, however, see several figures near me.

"She's awake!" a voice shouted. I recognized it as Tracey's.

"Huh?" I muttered, trying to sit up. However, I was almost immediately pushed back down, gently but firmly. I was handed something that felt like my glasses, and when I put them on, it turned out that they were.

Looking around, I saw that I was indeed in my room, and Professor Oak, Delia, Tracey, Pikachu, Cloudy, and Flame were all by my bed, which I was in. (I figured I was because I could see my sleeping mat across the room.)

"You need to rest, Tay." Cloudy smiled very gently.

"But I feel fine!" I protested.

"You've only just recovered from a serious fever. You need to rest, to make sure it doesn't come back." Delia told me. "You should go back to sleep."

"Fine," I grumbled, taking off my glasses and putting them down before lying down and closing my eyes. I heard Professor Oak and Delia talk for a little while before Pikachu's stomach grumbled and they left the room to get some lunch. As soon as I heard the door shut, I opened my eyes and silently stood up while putting my glasses on. I heard everyone's voices coming from downstairs, so I got out a sheet of paper and a pen and started to write.

"**To Mom, Dad, Pikachu, Ms. Ketchum, Professor Oak, and Tracey,**

** I need to leave to train. Don't search for me, I'll come to you when I'm ready.**

**Tay" **

I left that where my glasses were before getting my bag from the desk, where I'd left it before I went on that run. Becoming completely calm, I placed my ribbon in the bag and swung it on. Next I opened a window and used my powers to float myself down to the ground from the window, since my room was on the second floor. Once I was firmly on the ground, I set off at a run, knowing that I needed to get away from there as fast as I could, or risk getting caught.

I barely looked at my surroundings, merely choosing to pause for about five seconds to transform into a Pokemon once a few minutes had passed. With my heightened Pokemon senses I could faintly hear Dad's voice, "Tay? TAY! WHERE ARE YOU?"

After hearing that, I raced off again. By the time I slowed to a stop, panting, I was in the Viridian Forest. Looking up through the thick canopy of trees, I realized it was almost sunset. I forced myself to go a bit further before digging a small den under a bush and curling up to rest in it.

(**Time Skip: Next Morning**)

I was confused for a moment when I woke up, until I remembered the events of the previous day-and felt them. My legs were so sore I could barely stand when I got out from under the bush. I needed to build up my stamina, though, so I kept moving, though not quite at the same speed as yesterday. Knowing I'd have trouble if I went through Pewter City and got seen by Brock or one of his siblings saw me in either form, I skirted around it. Instead, I went right from Viridian forest to the area around Mt. Moon.

At around noon, I stopped to get some Nanab berries and drink from a nearby stream. After I rested for approximately an hour, I felt better and decided to do some training. My constant travel was perfect training for my endurance, so I practiced my Aura Sphere. I got tired after only a couple, so I practiced using at least five at a time. However, after that I got so tired I could barely move, but I managed to crawl to a hollow made by the roots of a nearby tree before I fell asleep.

I woke up to voices.

"I can smell her! She's nearby, I know it!" I stiffened as soon as I made out what the voice was saying, as well as who was saying it. _I need to get away, now!_ I looked around to see if my parents and (maybe) Pikachu were within sight, which they weren't, before bounding away. As I was, though, I caught a flash of movement on my left. I didn't slow down as I heard Mom's voice shouting, "TAY!"

Luckily for me, I had almost fully recovered my strength from my sleep, so save for dodging trees, I was able to go full speed. However, when I was towards the end of a large clearing, I heard Pikachu say, "I'm sorry, Tay, but, THUNDERBOLT!"

Knowing what was coming next, I swerved just in time to see the yellow bolt of electricity land right where I was. Pushing myself, I raced out faster than ever. As I pelted through the trees, I heard the pawsteps fading, but I kept going long after I couldn't hear them. By the time I stopped, I was at Cerulean City.

_Uh oh. If Misty or her sisters see me, they'll tell Delia or Professor Oak, and they'll come here! I need to avoid it as well! _I pondered before skirting around the entrance of Cerulean. Instead, I went an alternate way, heading out into the wilderness between Cerulean and Vermillion City.

Once I was as far away from all humans and Pokemon as possible, I started to train. I set up a bit of a schedule within a few days. It went as follows:

1\. Wake up at sunrise.

2\. Meditate for about an hour.

3\. Get breakfast, usually apples, various types of berries, and water from the stream.

4\. Head to a nearby clearing and run laps, five + the number of days I'd been there.

5\. Train my ability to use rapid-fire Aura Spheres by attempting to fire at least five before stopping, attempting to add at least one every day.

6\. Eat lunch, usually similar arrangements as breakfast.

7\. Train myself as a human, using all the same routines as earlier for when I was a Pokemon.

8\. Dinnertime, with even more berries.

9\. Meditation for another hour before transforming into a Pokemon and going to sleep.

Once five days had passed, I woke up and began my schedule as usual. I ate lunch and was about to turn into a human to do my after-lunch training when I was caught off-guard by a rustle in the bushes. I was startled because I'd chosen a place where no other Pokemon lived and no humans went. The bushes parted to reveal a Vaporeon, a Flareon, and a Pikachu. I backed up, my eyes wide.

"Tay! We finally found you!" Mom raced towards me, while Pikachu used Quick Attack to get behind me.

"We just want to talk and bring you home," Pikachu tried to calm me down, to no avail. I kept turning around, my eyes wide. My breathing quickened rapidly.

"Please, I need to keep training!" I shouted.

"Why? You're not into any Leagues or anything!" Pikachu asked.

"It's not for any sort of League or anything, it's for the world," I replied quietly.

"What do you mean, 'the world'?" Mom asked.

I explained about the dream I had when I was sick, the one about the mysterious entity.

"That sounds unlikely, but if it's real, it does seem important," Mom muttered.

"Believe me, it was real." I assured.

"I suppose," Dad thought out loud.

"I'm pretty sure it's real. I've seen loads of prophecies come to pass, so I'm not really all that surprised." Pikachu muttered from behind me.

"Well, if the world's in danger, we need to try to stop the world from ending!" Mom said. She and Dad looked at each other.

"We'll help you out, and don't even think of running off without us again, you hear me?" Dad asked, he and Mom coming closer.

"I guess," I muttered, not seeing any other way out of this.

"And of course I'm coming too." Pikachu came up from behind us. "Don't forget that Ash's last words were for me to go with you."

"Alright, but I stick to a rigorous schedule." I warned.

"No problem! Remember how hard I trained with Ash!" Pikachu smiled, though it shrunk a little when he said 'Ash'.

"And of course we'll do it, no matter how tough," Dad beckoned to himself and my mother.

"Alright. I was actually about to begin training again, in my other form." I smiled lightly before thinking the one thought I needed to activate my transformation. _I want to become a human again._ I felt the transformation taking hold of me, and within a minute, I was human. "Now it's time to train."

I led them from my home clearing-_I need to figure out how we'll all find places to sleep,_ I thought-to my much larger training clearing.

"First is endurance training." I said. "We run all the way around here. Currently I'm up to trying to run ten without stopping." With that I set off, shouting over my shoulder, "Let's see if you can do that as well!" I raced as fast as my feet could go, hearing the others behind me.

It took about eight minutes for me to finish my laps, so I settled down, panting, to watch the others finish up their last few laps, since I was the first one to finish. It took a couple more minutes for everyone else to finish.

"Okay, now for practicing moves. Mom, you try to strengthen your Water Gun, maybe even try to learn Hydro Pump. Dad, how about working on coating yourself with fire and learning Flame Charge? Pikachu, you work on your moves. You can choose which. Meanwhile, I'm going to work on using my Shadow Ball and Aura Sphere in this form." I gave the instructions before heading a few yards away and forming the two spheres in my hands, firing them at a large boulder. It almost instantly crumbled into smaller pieces. All the others, who were watching, widened their eyes.

"Whoa!" Mom came up to me. "It looks like you're good to go on that!"

"Not quite yet," I gave a small smile, panting slightly. "I get tired too easily. That's why I'm practicing this, not to try to increase the power."

"Pika. Pikachu." Pikachu said before turning away to another rock (that had, upon my arrival, been considerably larger, but it had been a victim of my training my first day) and using Electro Ball on it. The rock crumbled into sand and pebbles.

We all did similar things, working on being able to use our moves faster and being able to use them more often, or simply powering them up, for a few hours, until I called out, "That's enough for today!" They all jogged towards me.

"Let's some meditation in before dinner." I suggested.

"Sure." Dad agreed. We went from the rather devastated field to the shelter field. Once we got there, I settled myself in a lotus position, as did Pikachu (to the best of his abilities), while Mom and Dad sat up perfectly straight.

After an hour or so of meditation, I stood up silently and left to gather fruit for dinner. By the time I got back, some various fruits and berries in my arms, the others were looking around for me.

"Tay! Why'd you run off again?" Dad asked as soon as he saw me, gaining the other's attention.

"Sorry if I worried you, but I needed to gather up some dinner. I don't think this'll be enough, though..." I frowned.

"Pi-pikachu pika chupi." Pikachu pointed to the woods.

"I'll head out with you to gather some more, and this time I think I'll use my powers as well." I nodded to Pikachu, and we headed back into the woods.

Not very far away, there was a grove of Pecha Berries, as well as a few bushes with some small red berries I'd never tried, since they looked similar to Cheri Berries, and I didn't like those very much. Pikachu picked plenty of the small berries, while I picked a lot of Pecha Berries, holding them with my Psychic. After a little while, I deemed that we had picked enough, so we came back to the den to see that Mom and Dad had eaten a little of the fruit.

"Alright, let's dig in!" I smiled as Pikachu and I put down the rest of the berries and started to dig in. The small berries were not what I thought they'd be at all, being very sweet and yummy.

After we finished eating and wrapping up the extras, we went into the shade and went to sleep, after I'd transformed back into a Pokemon.

(**Time Skip: The Next Dawn**)

I woke up early to rouse the others and start our morning meditation. However, these things didn't quite happen as after I had woken everyone up, Mom gave a 'suggestion'.

"We're close to Vermillion City. We should go there, if only for the day." she said to me, very seriously.

"No. We have to continue training." I answered.

"It'll only be for the day. You have to let everyone at Pallet Town know you're alright." she insisted.

"NO!" I yelled.

"I'll drag you there yourself if I have to," she threatened.

"Fine..." I grumbled, seeing that there was no way out.

After we had gathered and eaten breakfast, I transformed into a human and we started to head to Vermillion.

Once we got there, we went to the Pokemon Center, where there were video phones. I called Delia first, thinking, _I should get the worst of it over with first._

Sure enough, when Delia saw that it was me, she started on a rant that was a mix of anger and relief.

"Tay! You're safe! I was so angry when you left! Why'd you leave? Where are you calling from? Are the other Pokemon with you? Do you need any supplies?" she started.

"I'm safe, I'm in Vermillion City but I'm not staying for long, Cloudy, Flame and Pikachu are with me, and I have enough supplies." I said. "I'm not going to be going back to Pallet Town for a while, though."

"How long?" Delia asked.

"Probably... more than a year." I looked down, suddenly realizing how interesting the floor was.

"WHAT! A YEAR!" Delia practically exploded. "WHAT DO YOU MEAN, YOU'RE NOT COMING HOME FOR MORE THAN A YEAR?!"

"Eep!" I squeaked. "It's necessary, unless you don't want to live until today two years from now."

That quieted Delia, all right. I elaborated. "I was chosen when I was born to save the world from a threat that will appear in about a year and a half. Until then, I have to train. I may call sometimes, but I won't be seeing you in person for a long time. I have to call Professor Oak now, so bye." With that I turned off the video phone to dial the number for Professor Oak's laboratory.

The person that answered wasn't Professor Oak, though; it was Tracey.

"Hello-Tay?" he asked as soon as he realized who was calling. The next thing I knew, I was being treated to a similar rant as I had just gone through.

"Please Tracey," I cut him off midrant, covering my ears. "I just went through this."

"Why'd you leave?" he asked. I gave him the same explanation I'd just given Delia.

"Oh. Do you need any of your Pokemon, then?" he questioned.

"No, I'm good to go with the three that found me." I smiled.

"Alright." he said. "I'll explain this to the Professor. He'll understand."

"Thanks," I shot him a grateful smile before shutting off the video phone. After I did that, I turned around to Mom and Dad, who had been sitting behind me (Pikachu was on my shoulder) watching me make the calls. "Are you satisfied?"

"Very," Mom smiled up at me.

"We might as well stay here at night," I muttered. "We can leave town during the day today to train, but we can stay in the Pokemon Center at night."

"Pikachu pika chu," Pikachu nodded. (I could tell because I felt the movement by the side of my head.)

"So how 'bout we get a bit of training in today?" I asked.

"Pika, ka chu?" Pikachu muttered. Since I couldn't figure out what he was saying, I looked at my parents for a translation.

"He said, 'Sure, why not?'" Mom provided.

"Thanks, Cloudy. Now then, let's go!" (**A/N: She's going to call her parents by their names in public since she has to keep the fact that she's a Pokemon a secret.**) I smiled, and we headed out to do a similar training routine as yesterday, after which we went back to the Pokemon Center, got a room, and went to sleep.

The next day, just as my Pokemon and I were about to head out for more training, Nurse Joy called me over, saying, "Tay, you have a call on the video phone!" I trotted over to it and saw Professor Oak's face.

"Professor?" I asked when I realized that.

"Yes, Tay." he said. "I learned where you are from Tracey. I know you want to stay away from us, and while I don't fully want that, I'll accept it. However, I do have an idea, since I heard you want to get stronger."

"Oh?" I inquired.

"You could participate in Regional Leagues." he suggested. "You don't have to, of course, but it'll help your Pokemon get considerably stronger."

"I think I will," I muttered, thinking it through out loud. "I'm not certain, since even thinking about it reminds me of Ash, but since I need to get over his... death... I will do it."

"Alright. I was only calling to tell you about the idea I had, so unless there's anything else you need..." the Professor started, purposely trailing off.

"No, there isn't anything else," I informed him.

"Alright, when can I expect to hear from you?" he asked.

"I don't know. Don't expect it to be anytime soon, though." I answered as honestly as I could before muttering a short "'Bye" and ending the call.

"So, I guess we should decide which League to challenge, then?" I asked my Pokemon.

"Yeah, maybe we should go out for a little while, so we can all understand each other," Dad suggested.

"Let's go then," I said. We went a little bit into the woods, far enough and in thick enough cover that no one watching would see the silver glow as Tay the Pokemon Breeder and soon-to-be League Trainer turned into Tay the Silver Eevee.

Once I had, I said, in Pokemon speech, "So which region do you guys want to go for our first League?"

"I don't know, maybe Johto?" Dad suggested, and Mom nodded in agreement.

I looked at Pikachu. He answered my unspoken question. "I don't mind which region."

"It's settled then." I smiled. "We're going to Johto."

**A/N:**

** PsychicEevee: Hello! I've set up a nice course of action for this story, and I know where it's going now. For the QotD:**

** What Pokemon do you think the Gym Leaders in Johto should have (since in this fanfic two years have passed since Ash was there)?**


	9. Chapter 9

** A/N:**

** PsychicEevee: Hello! Random chapter out of nowhere! Writing this chapter (which was ages ago by the way) has made me realize how LITTLE I know about Johto. (I've only played one game in Johto, SoulSilver, once, and I misplaced that game ages ago! My brother has HeartGold right now, but he'll barely even let me see it, let alone play it, so I don't have too much of a source in regards to the area.) No reviews? Come on, I just want a single one per chapter? Is that so hard to ask?!**

** Skitty, the disclaimer please?**

** Skitty: Sure! *reads from paper* PsychicEevee0103 does not own or claim to own Pokemon. She does not own Pikachu, but she does own her OCs: Tay, Cloudy, and Flame~**

** PsychicEevee: Thanks Skitty. Here's the story!**

(**Tay's POV**)

The next day, we left for the Johto region. However, since the area we were in was quite a ways away, we decided to take our time and train as much as possible along the way. Dad learned Flame Charge after three days, when we were at a small town called Verano. Not much else happened until we got to the Johto region, when we arrived at Cherrygrove City. As we were passing by an electronics store late at night, I heard from a TV that was apparently on sale, "And in other news, the mystery thief is still at large in Cherrygrove City." I stopped to listen. "Not much is known about this individual, except that they steal Pokemon, in addition to all the valuables of the victim."

"We need to be careful, guys." I told them. "We don't know where or when this guy could strike."

"Most thieves seem to like the dark, so we need to get to the Pokemon Center ASAP," Mom thought out loud.

"I like that plan," I nodded. We headed to as close as I remembered the Pokemon Center to be (I hadn't been there in close to two years). However, a few blocks away, someone stepped in my path as I walked, making me stop in my tracks.

"Excuse me please," I tried to move aside so I could pass, but they moved in the way again. I tried again. "Please let me through. My Pokemon and I are headed to the Pokemon Center."

The person spoke softly enough that I had to strain to hear it. "The Pokemon Center, eh? I know a shortcut. Follow me." They turned towards an alley.

"Do you think it's a good idea?" I questioned my Pokemon softly.

"Even in the worst case scenario, we'll be okay," Mom assured me, and Dad and Pikachu nodded agreement. With this, I followed the figure into the alley.

After a few yards, I saw, as much as I could see since it was pretty much pitch-darkness, the figure, right in front of a wall.

"What's the meaning of leading me into a dead end?" I questioned the person angrily, my ribbon starting to glow in response.

"You might have heard of the Cherrygrove thief?" they questioned, sidling behind me so I had to turn around to see them.

"That's you?" I asked as my eyes widened.

"I'll be taking your Pokemon, including the ones in Pokeballs," I could hear the smirk on their voice.

"You wish! Pikachu, let's go!" I shouted. He jumped from my shoulder to the ground in front of me.

"An Electric Type, eh?" he-I could hear the person's voice better now, so I could tell their gender-asked rhetorically. "Then it's time to earn our pay, Quagsire." The Water/Ground type appeared with an unusually alert-sounding "Quag!" (I recalled Quagsire were usually slow Pokemon.)

"Use Mud Bomb on that Pikachu!" the man ordered.

"Quag quagsire!" the large blue Pokemon fired off a large brown sphere at Pikachu.

"Dodge and use Iron Tail!" I ordered, acting far more confident than I was. Pikachu moved out of the way before jumping into the air and, his tail turning a metallic shade of grey, landed tail first. Quagsire winced but did not cry out in pain, even though I could tell it wanted to.

"Use Water Pulse, followed by another Mud Bomb!" the man called out.

"Don't let it! Keep using Quick Attack to keep it unsteady on its feet!" I shouted. Pikachu dashed around, a white glow trailing behind him, and hit Quagsire again and again, making the Pokemon stumble. After about five hits, Pikachu stopped as Quagsire fell to the ground, its eyes swirls as it moaned, "Quag..."

"Quagsire, return," the man said with no emotion at all as he called the fallen Pokemon back to its Pokeball. "Go-"

I interrupted him. "Pikachu, Thunderbolt! Cloudy, Flame, get his Pokeballs and bag!" Pikachu zapped the man until he was unconscious, then Cloudy and Flame grabbed all the Pokeballs on the man's belt and his bag.

"Great job guys!" I praised the Pokemon. "I'll go to the police station, you guard this guy. Keep him at bay if he wakes up." I gathered up the Pokeballs and bag and ran out of the alley, over to the police station I'd passed on the way to the Pokemon Center.

The officers looked up as I entered.

"Can I help you young lady?" a male officer sitting behind a counter asked cordially.

"I found the Cherrygrove thief," I panted, setting the Pokeballs on it. "I took all his Pokeballs that were on him."

"Where?" one of the female officers (not Officer Jenny) asked, springing up from where she was sitting.

"In an alley. I can take you there." I gestured towards the door.

"Please do!" she said. I ran out and back to that alley, where Mom, Dad, and Pikachu stood guard over the still unconscious thief.

Any trouble you guys?" I asked my Pokemon.

"None. He slept like a baby," Dad reported.

"Great." I smiled before turning to the officer. "Here he is."

"How'd you manage to capture him?" she asked as she knelt down to handcuff the crook's wrists.

"He tried to steal my Pokemon. That was a mistake, and you can see why." I answered honestly as my Pokemon clustered around me, Mom and Dad curling around my legs while Pikachu jumped on my left shoulder.

"You must have quite a strong bond with your Pokemon." the officer said, obviously impressed. "How long have you had them?"

"I've known them for years, but I only caught Cloudy and Flame-" I indicated my parents, since the officer wouldn't know who they were-"-a bit more than a year ago. Pikachu I got a little more than a month ago."

"You said 'got' not 'caught' for Pikachu," the officer noted.

"Yeah. My... late brother gave him to me," I muttered.

"Ah," was all the officer said before I heard a low groan.

"It seems our little friend's waking up," I remarked. The officer hauled the man to his feet.

"Wha... You!" he shouted as soon as he saw me. "You're gonna pay for that move, you twerp!"

That last word made me freeze. _That word... it was what Team Rocket called us!_ My eyes widened and I started shaking, memories flashing before my eyes.

(**Cue Flashback**)

_I was still just a Pokemon, and I was cowering in a cage while three figures danced in front of me. There were two humans and a Meowth that could talk and walk like a human._

_ "We may not have gotten da main twerp's Pikachu, but we still escaped wit' da twerpy Eevee!" Meowth shouted._

_ "__Ash and the others are not twerps!__" I shouted through the cage._

_ "Wha' da you know Eevee?" Meowth asked smugly._

_ "__A lot more than you, I bet!__" I answered with a smirk._

_ "Why you little..." I could see the fire in Meowth's eyes._

_ "__I survived on my own in the wild for ten years. I was separated from my parents when I was a week old. I had to dodge ferocious Pokemon and Pokemon Poachers and Trainers since I was born. I had to learn about the world pretty quickly, don't you agree?__" I gave a rhetorical question._

_ "Umm... well..." Meowth fumbled for a response._

_ "__My point exactly.__" I smirked._

_ "Well... you're a twerp's Pokemon, so that makes you dumber automatically!" he shouted._

_ "__How?"__ I giggled softly. __"I see no connection between my friends and not being smart.__"_

_ "But... umm..." Meowth was again struggling for words._

_ "__I win!__" I smiled._

_ "Whatever, you're still a twerp!" the Scratch Cat Pokemon yelled angrily. "Just like all your twerpy little friends!"_

_ (__**Time Skip: 5 Months**__)_

_ I watched helplessly as the same trio, the ones who had been laughing at me so long ago, electrocuted Ash, electrocuted him until he was dead._

(**End Flashback**)

"Tay!" I was snapped out of my trance by a shout of worry from my parents. Looking around, I saw that the officer was nearby, but the thief was nowhere to be seen.

"Where'd that criminal go?" I asked the policewoman.

"I called for some backup to get him to the station." she explained. "Are you okay? You seemed to freeze up when that crook said 'twerp',"

"I'm fine. That word just brought back... bad memories, that's all." I gave a shaky smile.

"Alright." She seemed not to question my past anymore. "It's late. I'll escort you to the Pokemon Center."

"Thanks. That's actually where we were going." I smiled. We walked in silence for a while, until we saw a large, very brightly lit building with a large red "P" on it.

"Here we are," she said with a salute.

"Thanks." I gave a smile and headed inside to get a room for the night.

The next day, my Pokemon and I were met by the policewoman on our way out of the Pokemon Center.

"Thank you for yesterday. Now then, could you please come with me? There's one last thing that needs to be settled, and I think you would be the best person to decide this." she told me.

"Alright. I think we can spare the time today, even though I want to get to a city with a Gym ASAP," I thought out loud, looking at my Pokemon for approval. They all nodded.

We walked to the police station, where I was led a bit further in to what looked like a conference room. On the large table was a pile of Pokeballs.

"You see, we can't decide what to do with the Pokemon the thief actually caught himself. We're worried about releasing them into their correct environments, since they seem to have acquired a bullying personality." She explained, pointing at the Pokeballs.

"May I see them?" I asked.

"Let's go outside," the policewoman picked up the Pokeballs. I helped to carry some as we walked into the sort of yard outside the station. Once we got there, the policewoman and I threw our Pokeballs. Out came the Quagsire from yesterday, as well as a Magcargo, Victreebell, Shedinja, Exeggutor, and Tranquill. They all looked tough, though the Tranquill cringed the tiniest bit when it appeared. The others didn't seem to notice this, but I did.

"How about..." I thought for a few minutes, then continued. "How about sending them to some sort of therapist to get them over this aggression that's obviously been ingrained into them, then releasing them?"

"That sounds like a plan to me," the policewoman smiled, nodding.

The Tranquill walked over to me, not looking malicious, only curious. Looking closer, I saw that it was not at all healthy. Its feathers were dirty and dulled from what seemed to be malnutrition, and it was very thin. Its beak wasn't very lustrous, and there was practically no life in its eyes. "Tran..." it cooed.

"Hi there," I smiled at it, petting its dirty, greasy feathers. "Your trainer didn't take care of any of you, did he?" I frowned, looking at how poor the Pokemon all looked. Tranquill shook its head. "Tranquill tranquill tran."

"You seem to like me, Tranquill. Do you want to come with me?" I asked.

"Tranquill!" the normal/flying type nodded happily.

May I please have Tranquill's Pokeball?" I asked the watching policewoman. She nodded and handed over a Pokeball.

"Do you want a nickname, Tranquill?" I asked. It cocked its head to the left for a second, as if it was thinking before it nodded to say 'yes'. "Alright, how about Avis?" I asked, and it nodded with a smile on its beak.

"Avis it is, then. Welcome to the team!" I gave my own smile.

"Tran tranquill!" it smiled as I returned it to its Pokeball.

"Alright," the policewoman, who had been watching the whole time, nodded at me as she returned the other Pokemon back into their Pokeballs. "We'll send the others to specialists in this sort of case, and release them when they've rehabilitated, while you keep the Tranquill. Thank you for your assistance."

When that was finished, Cloudy, Flame, Pikachu, and I left Cherrygrove City, aiming to get to Violet City. Once we were in a clearing a few hours' walk from the city, I let Avis out.

"Tran?" it asked as soon as it was out.

"Avis, since you're my Pokemon, you ought to know about my powers." I said very seriously.

"Tranquill?" it asked.

"First off, I think I need to revert to my other form, so we can all understand each other," I said, extending my left arm. Pikachu ran down it and jumped off my hand. Cloudy and Flame moved about two yards away from me. Once that was done, I gave the trigger thought: _I want to be a Pokemon_. I saw the silver glow coming from me, as well as Avis' response to this unexpected event: its eyes widened, its beak opened, and it backed away slowly. Once the silver tint in my vision cleared, signaling my transformation was finished, I looked up at Avis.

"Wha-is..." she (I could now tell Avis' gender) stammered.

"Hi, Avis. I'm your Trainer. This is one of the powers I told you about. This is actually my true form, but I've been spending a lot of time in both forms recently." I explained, before adding, "Oh yeah, and since you didn't hear, my name's Tay."

"True form?" Avis questioned.

"I was born like this, as an Eevee, to Cloudy and Flame, the Vaporeon and Flareon here. It was only a few years ago that I got the ability to become a human, and it wasn't for quite a while afterwards that I found out I can change between the two at will." I gave the VERY short version of my history to Avis, figuring, _she's stunned enough as it is. I don't want to make it any worse than I have to_.

"So... is that it for all those powers?" Avis asked.

"You're kidding, right? I said 'powers', plural!" I smiled before pawing my ribbon off its place on my right ear. When I finished that, I scooped it up in my paw and handed it to Pikachu, who held it for me. "I have at least a couple more powers. I haven't thought about any more I probably have." I looked at my Pokemon. "Should I show her Psychic or Aura Sphere?"

"Aura Sphere first, then Psychic," Pikachu suggested.

"Good idea! Thanks Pikachu," I smiled before turning back to Avis. "I'll show you my two moves." I felt my life energy, also known as aura, then took some (I didn't worry with the amount I took; it recovered right away) and formed a light blue and silver sphere with it. I fired it at a nearby boulder, which crumbled.

"Wow!" Avis' eyes widened.

"That's not all," I focused my powers on the remnants of the boulder now. A blue tint covered everything I saw, but it was soon limited only to the pieces of rock I was using my powers on. I shifted it to the shape the boulder was in earlier, holding it in position for a few moments before letting my powers go. When I did, the rest of my vision filled out, and I heard crashing sounds as the boulder fell back into the pile of rocks.

"That was cool!" Avis chirped.

"I can use them as a human too," I smiled before starting my transformation back into said form. Once I had, I held up Avis' Pokeball. "It's time to go," I said as I returned her. I got my ribbon from Pikachu and put it on as he jumped back onto me.

We traveled for a few hours more before coming to a place that looked like an abandoned clearing. "This looks like a good place to have lunch, then train," I smiled.

"Yep," Dad nodded.

I prepared a bit of food for lunch (I needed to learn how to cook; I had always had someone to do that), and afterward started the training regimen from earlier, releasing Avis for training, looking in my Pokedex (**A/N: The Unova one; that's the first region where she was a human from the start**) for Avis' moves. We decided to see if Avis could learn the move U-turn. With that move as I recalled from seeing it several years back, the user swoops down and attacks the target before going into its Pokeball. We struggled with that move for a long while, until during a dive to try it, she glowed a light green color for a few seconds, but it was gone far before she hit Dad, the practice target.

"Well, that looked promising!" Dad praised.

"Let's try it again!" I shouted. "Mom, how about you're the target now?"

"No problem Tay," she said as Dad moved aside and Mom took his place.

"Climb and dive again!" I told Avis, who promptly flapped her wings to gain altitude before making a sharp dive downwards and towards Mom, as if she was using Aerial Ace, except I could see her efforts to not do so. Instead, she glowed green for a few seconds again, and it lasted almost until she hit Cloudy, which resulted in a collision. I pulled out a Potion and started to treat both of them. After I had made sure they were okay, we continued training, but this time I worked on my own moves, particularly Aura Sphere. I was able to do a lot of them before running out of steam by now, so I worked on powering it up. I was satisfied by the time I was able to break a large boulder. After that I sat down and meditated, my ribbon on again. I was startled out of my meditation a few hours later by gasps by all my Pokemon.

I opened my eyes to see that everything was bathed in a harsh pinkish-purple glow. I squinted to see my Pokemon, who were all flinching away from the glow, even though Dad didn't seem quite as affected as the others, and the glow seemed to be emanating from my body since I couldn't see any other possible source. I forced my new power to stay inside my body. The light faded and slowly all of my Pokemon looked up to see me looking completely stunned.

"I... think I just found a new power," I stated the obvious, now knowing what else to say.

"Yeah but... what is it?" Mom mused.

"Pikachu pichu pika chupi," Pikachu muttered.

"I think, at least until I know the name of it since all my powers in the past have been Pokemon moves, I'll call it the Blinding Light," I thought for a moment.

**A/N:**

** PsychicEevee: Hello! Well, a lot happened in this chapter. Flame learned a move, Tay and the crew beat a criminal, Tay got one of the criminal's Pokemon, and Tay learned of a new power she has. Raion, the QotD please!**

** Raion: Sure! The QotD is: What move did Tay use? It's kinda obvious though based on what she called it and what she described it as... *starts babbling***


	10. Chapter 10

** A/N:**

** PsychicEevee: Hello! Let's take a moment to celebrate double digits! And this was posted because Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire are coming out technically tomorrow but essentially today, and it also commemorates my first visit to Nintendo World, or it will since it hasn't happened yet.**

** I actually didn't really expect reviews this time since the time period was WAY short (and don't expect that; the only reason I'm updating now is the new games) and as such, not a lot of time for reviews to arrive. But, yay, review anyway!  
**

**Shinymudkip25: Here's your cookie! And this is pretty old, I feel once this is done I'll rewrite this, and not have Tay be quite so... powerful. She's rather overpowered, but since I've had almost zero free time recently, so I've barely been able to write, let alone REwrite.**

** Disclaimer: I, PsychicEevee0103, do not own or claim to own Pokemon. I only own the idea for my plot as well as my OCs, Tay, Cloudy, Flame, and Avis. Now then, let's go!**

(**Time Skip: 3 days**)

It was a few days later when we reached Violet City. I took a day off training for Avis, Dad and Pikachu, who I was going to use for the Gym Battle, to rest while Mom and I trained up.

As I practiced letting out my Blinding Light in short bursts and then retracting it so I had some more control over my newfound ability, Mom remarked, "I wonder how you're going to do in the battle tomorrow,"

I retracted the glow and, turning to reply, said, "I'm honestly not sure. Even though this is my first Gym battle, I've watched plenty of them, so I should be fine, but I don't know..." I frowned in thought.

"We'll do fine," Dad, who had been watching, assured me.

"Yeah," I smiled.

The next day, I walked to the Gym. It was a very tall, blue and white building.

"Hello!" I called once I was in front of it. "I challenge you to a battle!"

A young man with short blue hair and wearing light blue clothes came out. "You're my next challenger? Very well. Follow me."

We entered the building and rode an elevator to the top. There was a bit of an entourage of people in white robes next to an official battlefield, with one of the people in the referee box.

"I'm Falkner, the Violet City Gym Leader," he explained as we took our places on opposite ends of the battlefield.

"I'm Tay," I gave Falkner a quick smile.

"This will be a three-on-three battle," the referee stated. "Only the challenger will be allowed to substitute Pokemon, and the battle will be over when all of one side's Pokemon are unable to continue. Are you ready?"

"Yep," I tried to look more confident than I felt.

"My Pokemon are ready for flight." Falkner nodded.

"Send out your Pokemon," the referee said.

"You're up first, Flame," I looked down to my dad, who stepped out onto the battlefield.

"Go, Noctowl!" Falkner sent out a Pokeball, which opened to reveal the dark colored Owl Pokemon, which announced its arrival loudly.

"Battle begin!" the referee held up both the red and green flags he was holding, red to represent Falkner and green to represent me.

"I'll start! Flame, use Quick Attack!" I commanded right away, knowing how important the speed you attack with was, especially with flying types. Dad darted over the battlefield, leaving a white trail behind him, gaining speed as he went. He was almost an orangeish-red blur when he struck Noctowl.

"Fly up, then use Air Cutter!" Falkner countered. Noctowl stretched its wings, flew high up and started to form a sphere of blue wind above its head, which it proceeded to launch at Dad.

"Dodge!" I shouted, but it was just one second too late as the sphere struck my father hard, knocking him back. I looked at him, concerned, as he walked back up to where he had been at the start of the battle. "Use Flamethrower!"

Dad quickly opened his mouth and fire streamed from it, hitting the Noctowl, which was too slow to dodge it. The normal/flying type fell after the roasting was finished, but it slowly got to its feet. However, there were several angry red spots on its body, which suggested it had gotten burned.

"Can you still battle, Noctowl?" Falkner gently questioned.

"Noct... noctowl!" it squawked.

"Alright, Peck!" the Gym Leader ordered. Noctowl flew at Flame, wincing as the burns on its body were aggravated, and stretched out its beak.

"Dodge and use Flame Charge!" I countered. Dad quickly jumped to the side and stomped up a cloud of dust as Noctowl flew by harmlessly. Bursts of fire shot from different points on the dust cloud, and Dad shot out and into Noctowl, coated in fire. Noctowl was shot back. When it landed, it didn't even attempt to get up.

"Noctowl is unable to battle, Flareon is the winner!" the referee held up the green flag. Falkner murmured, "Good job, my friend. You deserve a long rest." He held up another Pokeball. "Go, Skarmory!"

The large steel/flying type appeared with a piercing cry.

"I'll take the first move this time!" Falkner swept his hand out. "Skarmory, use Rock Tomb!" Skarmory screeched again and portals dumped rocks from the sky (**A/N: I know, this wouldn't work with physics and stuff but I'm gonna borrow a phrase from another fandom, Yu-Gi-Oh, and say that screw the rules, I have green hair! (No I don't, my hair's brown in real life)**), and they hit Dad hard and threw a cloud of dust up. When it cleared, my father and Pokemon was lying on the ground, moaning something I couldn't quite hear.

"Flareon is unable to battle, Skarmory is the winner!" the referee put up the red flag this time.

I ran to Dad, who was starting to wake up. I helped him back to where I stood as I murmured, "Great job, You just relax now." Straightening up, I said, "Change of plans. Cloudy, you're up next!" She looked at me, confused for a moment before running out on the battlefield.

"Battle begin!" the referee said after a long moment.

"Bubble Beam!" I took the initiative as Cloudy fired a stream of bubbles at Skarmory, knocking it back. When it regained control, it had several blue bubbles stuck to its wings.

"Use Steel Wing!" Falkner commanded. Skarmory swooped in on Cloudy, its wings turning even more metallic.

"Use Quick Attack to dodge, then use Water Pulse!" I countered. Cloudy darted away, leaving a white trail behind her, then stopped and formed a sphere of water in front of her mouth before firing it at Skarmory. It hit directly, sending Skarmory crashing to the ground, sending up a cloud of dust. When it cleared, Skarmory was still on the ground with swirls for eyes.

"Skarmory is unable to battle. Vaporeon wins!" the referee held up the green flag again.

"Great job Skarmory. Take a long rest," Falkner smiled softly as he returned his fallen Pokemon before choosing another Pokeball. I was certain of which Pokemon it was as he said, "I haven't needed to use you in a Gym battle for a long time, my friend. Let's go!" he threw the Pokeball, which opened to reveal the Pokemon I was expecting, a Pidgeot.

"Pidgeot!" it announced its arrival onto the battlefield.

"Battle begin!" the referee shouted.

"Bubble Beam!" I yelled, recalling how fast Pidgeot was, and knowing sometimes Bubble Beam slows the target down. As Mom prepared to battle it, Falkner yelled, "Into the sky!" The bubbles passed harmlessly underneath Pidgeot as it soared upwards. "Now use Wing Attack!" Pidgeot raced down towards Mom, its wings glowing white.

I saw an opportunity and shouted, "Wait until it gets close, then Water Pulse!" Mom nodded to show that she understood and waited to form the sphere until Pidgeot was too close to swerve away, then fired it. Water sprayed everywhere.

"That's a smart tactic, but let's see you try to match Pidgeot's amazing speed!" Falkner smiled, which was obviously some kind of cue for Pidgeot. It started to fade in and out of sight, always reappearing in different places. _Nuts,_ I thought,_ it's using Agility!_ "Cloudy, use Quick Attack!" I shouted desperately, but Mom couldn't even keep up with the speedy flying Pokemon at her fastest, and missed every time she tried to ram into it. Sensing that she was getting tired, I called out, "Cloudy, return!" She walked back to my side with a grateful glance. "Pikachu, you're up!" He walked out on the battlefield. Falkner's eyes widened.

"That Pikachu... it looks familiar," he said softly. "By any chance, do you know a boy named Ash?"

"Yes. I was his adopted sister," I murmured.

"'Was'?" Falkner questioned.

"He... died a bit more than a month ago." I felt a tear flowing from my eye.

"He was among the last opponents that managed to force me to use Pidgeot in battle." the Gym Leader murmured. I shook myself out of the stupor thinking about Ash put me in.

"Let's continue this battle! Pikachu, use Agility!" I shouted. Pikachu started to run around the arena, disappearing from sight every few seconds to reappear somewhere else.

"Stop it with Quick Attack!" Falkner yelled. Pidgeot swooped down and towards Pikachu, leaving the familiar white trail behind. (**A/N: Seriously, pretty much every Pokemon knows Quick Attack!**) I waited for the right moment, which came when Pidgeot was about to hit Pikachu, then gave my counter. "Get on Pidgeot's back and use Thunderbolt!" Pikachu quickly jumped onto the large flying type's back before charging up his attack.

"Shake it off, quickly!" Falkner yelled. Even from across the battlefield I could see the desperation in his eyes. Alas, it was to no avail as Pikachu clung on and released his attack, which did far more damage than normal since Pidgeot was weak to electric attacks. When he finished, Pikachu jumped off. Pidgeot fell when the attack was over, but struggled back into the air.

"That's the spirit! Now use Whirlwind!" Falkner shouted. Pidgeot flew up high and started flapping its winds to get a strong gust blowing towards Pikachu.

"Dodge it with Agility into Volt Tackle!" I yelled. Pikachu used Agility, fading from sight to appear away from the Whirlwind, behind Pidgeot, before he became cloaked in electricity and launched himself at the other Pokemon, which turned around in surprise an instant before the attack landed. They both fell on the ground. Only Pikachu landed on his paws, though he winced as the recoil from using Volt Tackle hit.

"Pidgeot is unable to battle, so Pikachu is the winner and the victor is Tay!" the referee announced.

"Alright!" I cheered, a huge grin on my face. "Great job guys!"

Later that day, after both Falkner and I had had our Pokemon healed up at the Pokemon Center, we were in front of the Gym.

"Here you are, Tay. The proof of winning at the Violet Gym: the Zephyr Badge, as well as a Badge Case." Falkner handed me a grey box with a black Pokeball on it. I picked it up and opened it to find the familiar badge inside that looked like a pair of wings.

I decided to do something against my nature, something Ash always did. "Alright! I got the Zephyr Badge!"

The Pokemon around me added cheers as well (even though I could only hear Pikachu saying "Pi-pikachu!"). I then said goodbye to Falkner as I left for the Pokemon Center, where I planned on staying the night before leaving in the morning.

**A/N:**

** PsychicEevee: Hello! Well, Tay's got one Gym down, seven to go! It was tough writing the Gym battle, since I'm not particularly experienced with writing battles, but I hope I made it seem plausible (not making it one-sided or anything like that). I'm actually going to stop making QotDs from now on, since I write these way in advance so the time period affected by them (if that applies) will be long written by the time they're up. See you later, and don't forget to review!**


	11. Chapter 11

** A/N:**

** PsychicEevee: Hello! Here are my responses to reviews:**

** Shinymudkip25: Thanks! Everyone else thanks you too.**

** portalminecraft10pokemon: Yay new reviewer! And as for an OC: I haven't thought about it. You can send him/her in, but don't expect them to be in there anytime soon. I'm up to writing Chapter 27, and I have a plan for right after that too, but I'll see when I can fit them in.**

** As usual, I don't own Pokemon, only this idea and my OCs, Tay, Cloudy, and Flame! Enjoy!**

(**Tay's POV, as per usual**)

(**Time Skip: 3 Days**)

There wasn't much until three days later that something interesting happened. We were traveling on the road to Azalea Town when we heard a cry of pain.

"What was that?" I asked as I heard the high, shrill cry.

"Let's go!" Dad yelled over his shoulder as he raced off in the direction of the sound. Mom and I (with Pikachu on my shoulder as usual) followed him.

When I got there, I saw a small orange-and-tan Pokemon lying on the ground, badly hurt. Nearby was a boy a bit older than me, which would put him at around fifteen, wearing a light green shirt with a large portion of yellow around the middle, blue jeans, white sneakers, and carrying a green backpack the same color as his shirt. There was a viscous gleam in his light brown eyes. He had a Machamp with the same almost deranged glint in its eyes to match its Trainer. The orange-and-white Pokemon, which I recognized as a Teddiursa, looked like it had been heavily beaten.

As I watched, the boy said, "'Dis is watcha get for stealing my food, ya stupid Teddiursa! Machamp!" The Machamp came closer to the poor Teddiursa, and this is where I stepped in, sliding between the two Pokemon.

"Stop!" I shouted angrily.

"Wat, 'dis little ruffian's yer's?" he drawled.

"No, but no matter what went on between you two, this is too much!" I noticed glowing by my wrist and tried to calm down, but it was futile.

The boy noticed the glow as well, as he asked, "What's 'dat by yer hand?"

"None of your business!" Mom, who had joined me by now with Dad, growled.

"Leave this Teddiursa alone NOW!" I yelled.

"Hell no!" he shouted. "Machamp, show dis girl not to interfere in our business!"

Machamp moved forward, grinning evilly. I looked at my Pokemon. "Should I?" I asked quietly, motioning to my ribbon.

"Go for it," Dad said. "Show these Pokemon abusers a lesson!" Mom and Pikachu both nodded in agreement.

I pulled my ribbon off and placed it carefully in a special pocket in my rose colored vest, zipping it up before extending my hand.

Machamp froze in place, surrounded by a light blue aura.

"Wha'-what're ya doing to Machamp?!" the kid yelled.

"I have a few powers," I told him with a smirk, and moved my hand forward, moving Machamp so it slammed itself and its Trainer into a tree behind them. Once that was done, I stopped my power, quickly tied my ribbon back on, and gently picked up the Teddiursa. It opened its eyes when it felt the movement, and looked up at me.

"Ur?" it muttered softly.

"Don't worry. I'm going to take you to the Pokemon Center. You're going to be fine," I soothed, petting the crescent moon on its head with my free hand. "There was a Pokemon Center a little bit back, wasn't there?" I asked the other Pokemon, and they nodded. Mom and Dad shot off in the direction we'd just come from. I followed, with Pikachu on my shoulder and Teddiursa in my arms.

After about five minutes, we arrived at the Pokemon Center. I ran through the door quickly.

"Nurse Joy, I need help!" I said, panting slightly as I got up to the counter.

"What did you do to that poor Teddiursa?" she asked, already standing up.

"It's not what I did, it's what a boy with a Machamp did to this Pokemon! I only caught the tail end of it, but from what he said, the Teddiursa apparently stole that boy's food, so he was 'punishing' it!" I said angrily.

"That's horrible!" she gasped, then called Chansey, who ran over with a stretcher. "We need to hurry!" I nodded to show that I understood and went to sit down in the waiting area.

I became highly restless, so I stood up after a while and said, "Let's do some training." The Pokemon nodded, so we left to the battlefield, where I called Avis out.

"Tran?" she looked around as she same out. "Tranquill Tranquill tran?"

"I know you were excited to battle, but plans changed during it, since you don't know many moves that can affect a steel Pokemon and Falkner sent out a Skarmory." I explained.

"Tran. Tranquill tranquill," she seemed satisfied with that, so I moved on. "Anyway, I'm thinking we pair off and have mock battles. Avis and Cloudy, Pikachu and Flame. I'll watch and see what moves need strengthening."

The four started their false battles. I kept an eye on them, and after a while I called, "Alright guys, I think that's enough." They stopped using their attacks and jogged over to me.

"That's pretty good guys, but I have an idea that I think will help Mom and Dad," I told them. "I think you two should learn Iron Tail. When we're traveling, we'll be able to find good-size rocks for weights, and once you two can get the attack formed, we can work on being able to use it frequently."

"Sounds like a plan to me," Mom said.

"Same here," Dad agreed.

"Let's check on Teddiursa before starting again," I said, and they nodded in agreement.

Nurse Joy met us at the counter once we came back in.

"Teddiursa needs to rest for a few days, but it'll be fine," she reported with a smile as she saw me.

"That's good," I breathed a sigh of relief, then turned to my Pokemon. "How about we stay until Teddiursa gets better?"

"Of course," Mom and Dad said, while Pikachu responded with "Pi chu," and a firm nod, which I assumed meant the same thing.

Three days later, we were visiting Teddiursa when it stirred and opened its eyes.

"Ted? Ted-di ursa?" it murmured, seeming to recognize me as the girl who saved it from the Pokemon Trainer/abuser.

"Hi there. I'm Tay. I'm glad to see you're looking better," I smiled at it.

"Teddiursa!" it returned my grin.

"Teddiursa's healed, so it can leave anytime it wants," Nurse Joy came in and reported.

"That's great!" I tried to keep my voice calm. "Did you hear that, Teddiursa? You can leave now."

"Ursa! Teddiursa!" Teddiursa shook its head vigorously, then pointed at me.

"I think this Pokemon wants you to be its Trainer," Nurse Joy remarked. "Is that right, Teddiursa?"

"Ursa! Teddiursa!" it nodded even more vigorously.

"Alright," I pulled out a Pokeball and held it in front of the eager Teddiursa, who promptly hit the button in the center of it. Teddiursa got converted into energy and sucked into the Pokeball, the button of which turning red for a moment before making a small 'ding' and the button became white again.

"We need to get going now," I said to Nurse Joy, standing up and walking out.

"Good luck in the Johto League!" she called as Cloudy, Flame, Pikachu, and I left.

We went in the forest again, and once we were in a secluded clearing, I let Teddiursa out.

"Teddiursa, since you're my Pokemon, you should know that I'm not exactly a normal human. In fact, this isn't even my true form," I explained.

"Ursa?" it asked.

I started to transform. _I want to become a Pokemon again_. I felt the transformation, closing my eyes as I did so. When I opened them again, I saw Teddiursa looking at me, now a few inches taller than me, with amazement.

"Wha-Tay?" Teddiursa asked. I could now tell that Teddiursa was a boy. "You're... a human... and... a Pokemon... how?"

I explained and demonstrated to him about my powers.

When I finished, Teddiursa's eyes were sparkling.

"That was awesome!" he shouted. I blushed.

"Thanks," I muttered, before continuing, "Anyway, you need to get a nickname, so if anyone gets separated, we can call out the nickname."

"How about Honey?" Mom suggested. "I remember that Teddiursa like to have honey on their paws, right?"

"Yeah. I love it." the newly named Honey agreed.

"Let's get a bit further today, then do some training," I thought out loud.

"Training? I've never done any training," Honey frowned.

"We'll help you out," Mom promised.

"Alright, thanks," the smile was back on Honey's face. I transformed back into a human.

We started to walk, and after about two hours of walking Honey sat down.

"Ur-teddiursa," he complained.

"Let's get some lunch, and then train a bit." Dad suggested.

"Good idea," I blinked and nodded, reaching into my purse (I was considering buying a backpack, since the sorts of things I was starting to buy were heavy, and they'd be easier on my back if I had a backpack) and pulled out a portable stove, I started setting up a simple soup from a cookbook I'd bought a little while ago. After an hour, I tasted the stew. It wasn't bad, but it definitely didn't compare to any of Brock's recipes. I got out some Pokemon food and poured out equal shares for all the Pokemon, letting Avis out as well. We quickly ate and washed the dishes before moving on to training. I scanned Honey with my Pokedex and saw that he knew several unusual moves for a Teddiursa.

"You have some good moves, Honey," I complimented. "Did you have to practice those moves?"

"Teddiursa!" he shook his head rapidly.

"Before anything else, I think I should transform," I told them, before doing all the usual procedures for my transformation. When I was finished, I told them, "Pikachu, you take Mom and Dad and find some good-sized rocks. If you find a large one, break it into small, but heavy pieces and bring two back or get someone to help you bring them. We can tie them to Mom and Dad's tails as a start to learning Iron Tail." The three Pokemon in question nodded and ran off.

"Now then, Avis, how about working on your speed? You're already fast, but how about becoming even faster?" I suggested, and my Tranquill nodded and took off, flying as fast as possible around the clearing we were in. I turned to my newest Pokemon.

"Honey, how about we start small, since you told me you don't train very much?" I asked, and he nodded eagerly. "Alright then, let's work on your Crunch attack."

Honey nodded and opened his mouth. His small fangs grew slightly and started to glow white. Honey ran to a tree and promptly snapped one of the medium-thickness branches in half.

"That was great!" I praised.

"Really, you think so?" he muttered, blushing and rubbing his head with his paw.

"Definitely!" I smiled happily at him.

"Let's gather some targets and work on your Metal Claw," I suggested.

"Alright..." he murmured.

**A/N:**

** PsychicEevee: Hello! So Tay has a new Pokemon. Fun fact: Honey is designed to be like Tay, but much younger than her and not as afraid as humans. See you next time, and don't forget to review!**


	12. Chapter 12

** A/N:**

** Raion: Hello! It's been a while since we've talked, since Skitty and I have been playing a lot, so we've been too busy to come on here! So, Psychic decided to let us have the entire chapter! Skitty's getting the end notes, so you'll see her then.**

** Skitty: Or now! Raion, remember what Psychic gave us when she told us to take the chapter?**

** Raion: Oh yeah, the responses to the reviews! Hold on, I'll read them out now!**

** Shinymudkip25: Yeah, don't worry about that. I've settled them into their characters, and I don't think they're identical, just kind of similar.**

** Raion: Psychic said that this is all your Christmas presents, or whatever holiday you celebrate if you don't celebrate Christmas! She also said to say 'Happy holidays' and that there'll be a new chapter on her birthday too! Enjoy!**

The next day, I decided to do an experiment.

"Huh?" Mom asked as I told the Pokemon pretty much what was written above. (**A/N: PsychicEevee: Yep, I made the fourth wall crack. I'd better go repair it before Skitty notices!**)

"I'm going to travel for a day as a Pokemon," I explained. "If we can travel undeterred, I can do this all the time, since I can travel faster as a Pokemon than as a human, and that way we can all move faster."

"That makes sense." Dad muttered, nodding.

I transformed into my other form and we set off.

About an hour later, we were stopped by a powerful attack: large balls of mud hitting Dad, then Pikachu. Cloudy and I stopped in our tracks and rushed to them. Before anyone could say anything, though, there was a loud rustling in the bushes, and everyone turned to look.

A boy stepped out, and my first reaction was, _Ash?!_ However, once I shook that thought away, I noticed the differences between the boy and Ash. For one, his hair was dark blue, not black, and his eyes were dark green instead of brown. He was wearing a lot of dark clothes, reminding me of Ash's rival Paul. A Quagsire stepped out after him, which I guessed was what had shot the two Mud Shots.

"Neat! These are all awesome looking Pokemon, especially that Eevee!" he shouted, before throwing two Pokeballs. "Go, Zack and Frank!"

A Manectric and Quilava appeared with an intimidating bark each.

"Zack, use Thundershock on that Vaporeon! Alex, use Mud Shot again on the Pikachu and Flareon! Frank, use Swift on the Eevee!" he shouted quickly. The Quagsire shot two more balls of mud at my father and Pikachu, the Manectric shot a bolt of electricity at Cloudy, and the Quilava shot a lot of star-shaped energy at me, all of them hitting before we could react and blasting us back. The boy pulled out a Pokeball.

"Now I've got you, Eevee! Go-" I used my telepathy to speak before he threw it.

"_Don't, please!_" I shouted with telepathy, struggling to stand. _His Pokemon sure are powerful!_

"Wha-that's weird. I could've sworn I heard a girl telling me not to catch the Eevee," he muttered, dropping the Pokeball.

I did something that was probably very rash then: I transformed in front of the boy. When I finished, I shakily stood up and saw that the boy and all his Pokemon were standing there slack-jawed.

"How-but-you...?" the boy was obviously having problems forming words.

"Hi, I'm Tay. I'm the owner of the voice you heard, as well as being that Eevee you were about to catch." I smiled.

"I-I'm sorry," he stammered. "I-didn't know..."

"It's alright," I assured him while thinking, _the longer I'm with him, the more this guy's reminding me of Ash!_

He interrupted my train of thought by saying, "I'm Michael, by the way, but you can call me Mike." He changed the subject.

"Are your Pokemon nicknamed?" Mike asked.

"Yeah, except for Pikachu," I responded.

"Why?" he wanted to know.

"Pikachu was my... late adopted brother's first Pokemon. He didn't nickname his Pokemon, so in his memory I haven't nicknamed Pikachu," I answered quietly.

"How long ago did your brother... pass?" Mike questioned softly.

"Almost a month and a half now. He was thirteen," I mumbled. "Can we change the subject now please?"

"So... what sort of competitions do you enter in?" Mike asked.

"I was just a breeder before, but now I enter in Gym battles. You?" I offered.

"I'm a Pokemon Coordinator," Mike replied.

"Oh, I've traveled with a couple of friends that are Coordinators." I smiled. "I've watched lots of Pokemon Contests, even though I've never participated in one myself."

We continued to chat for an hour, at which time I asked Mike where he was going.

"I'm heading to the Azalea Town Contest." he answered.

"What a coincidence!" I smiled. "I'm heading there too, for the Gym."

"We should travel together for a while," I suggested.

"That sounds like a plan," he nodded. With that, we started towards Azalea again.

When noon rolled around, Mike and I stopped at a large clearing to make lunch.

"Are you a good cook?" Mike asked as his stomach grumbled.

"No, not really. When I traveled before I had no real need to learn since I traveled with friends that were great chefs." I explained.

"Ah." was Mike's reply.

"I'm trying to learn. I bought a cookbook at the last town." I said.

"That's good," he smiled.

"Anyway, let's get cooking." I ruffled through my larger, darker blue purse until I pulled out the cookbook and a portable stove.

After lunch, we sent out all of our Pokemon to do some training. I saw we had five Pokemon each: my five, and along with the three I'd seen before, Mike had a Nidorina and a large, horned, green, white, and brown Pokemon I'd never seen before.

"Tay, this is Clarisse, and this is Hazel," Mike pointed first at the Nidorina, then at the other Pokemon.

"What kind of Pokemon is Hazel?" I asked, curious.

"She's a Gogoat, a Pokemon from the Kalos region," he explained.

"Ah, that explains why I don't know about it," I smiled. "I've never been there."

"Where have you been?" Mike's eyes were gleaming.

"I've been to the Kanto, Hoenn, Sinnoh, and Unova regions, and this is my second time in the Johto region," I listed off, counting them on my fingers. "Oh yeah, and I've been in the Orange Archipelago."

"Orange what?" Mike blinked.

"A lot of islands near the Kanto region, but it has its own League." I summarized.

"Oh," Mike looked sort of interested. "Are there Contests there too?"

"I don't know," I shrugged. "Anyway, we were about to train, right?"

"Yeah! I wanted to try something with Clarisse," Mike ran off, gesturing for his Nidorina to follow him.

"Let's get some rocks for some tail training!" I ran off, quickly finding a good rock. I used a considerably watered-down Aura Sphere to break it into chunks, then carried them back to camp and tied them onto Mom and Dad tails.

"Now then, let's work on some training!" I called out before heading over to work with my Pokemon.

A few hours into training, something familiar happened.

Mom and Dad were doing their weight training with the rather heavy rock pieces when, almost simultaneously both of their tails glowed white for about a second before returning to normal.

"Was that..." Mike whispered, having seen it.

"It was Iron Tail," I confirmed. "Now we only need to do a bit more weight training, then we can move on to forming and sustaining the Iron Tail."

"That's great, but I think I'm ready for a break!" Mom panted.

"Alright, let's all get a snack," I agreed, bending down to untie the strings. When I was finished, my parents slumped down, more than a little tired.

I, along with Pikachu, went into the woods, gathered a LARGE amount of apples and other assorted berries, and returned to camp. When we got back I quickly sliced the fruits, made a fruit salad, and served some to everyone. It was really delicious, and when we were finished with cleaning up, we got back to training. This time, I set everyone up, then went to watch Mike's training.

He was working with Hazel now. He had her front and center, and he called, "Hazel, let's start with Razor Leaf, followed by Vine Whip!" Hazel shot off an array of leaves spiraling outward from the scarf-like bush area around her neck, then shot two vines from the same section and whipped them down.

"Next up, use Razor Leaf again, but this time, use Bulldoze as well!" Mike shouted. Again, Hazel shot leaves from her scarf, but she also charged through the huge storm, generating dust that mixed with the leaves.

"Finish with Aerial Ace!" Hazel's body became outlined in white streaks, accentuating the darkness of her body. After a few seconds I clapped, making Mike realize I was there.

"You were watching?" he asked, walking up to me with Hazel trotting by his side.

"Yeah, I think that's a winner!" I smiled.

"I'm planning on using Hazel for the Appeals Round." he explained.

"That's a good idea. Who're you using for the Battle Round?" I inquired.

"Frank," Mike answered after a moment of thought.

"That's your Quilava, right?" I asked, since I hadn't memorized all of Mike's nicknames yet.

"Yeah. Frank needs some battling to get used to his body, since he only recently evolved from a Cyndaquil." he answered.

"Let's get back to work. We're close to Azalea Town, so we should prepare as much as possible." I turned back to my Pokemon after I saw Mike nodding and turning to his.

(**Mike's POV**)

That night, I was woken up by a cry of fear. I checked my Poketch quickly, it was almost midnight. I wriggled out of my sleeping bag and looked around for the source of it. I heard it again from my left and looked there to see Tay, curled up tight in the layer of blankets she had gone to sleep in. I was puzzled over why she didn't just sleep in a sleeping bag, but that wasn't the time to be thinking about that, so I looked around there. As my vision got clearer due to getting used to the darkness, I realized that all of Tay's Pokemon were crowding around her. I quickly jogged over and crouched beside them.

Tay seemed to be having a nightmare. She kept muttering, "Ash... no... don't go..." Her face was screwed up in fear. Suddenly, her eyes shot wide open, knocking me down as she sat up, her face pale, trembling. As I sat up again, her face cleared and she sighed.

"Va por poreon?" her Vaporeon, Cloudy I believed, asked with a concerned look on its face.

"Yeah, it was the usual one," Tay answered.

"'Usual'?" I inquired.

"Ever since my brother passed, I've been having nightmares." Tay explained quietly.

"Ash was his name... right?" I based my guess on what she had murmured.

"Yeah, how did you... I was muttering in my sleep, wasn't I?" the last part of it was directed at her Pokemon.

"Flare flareon," Flame murmured.

"Yeah, his name was Ash Ketchum. His dream was to be a Pokemon Master, so in honor of that, I'm going after that same goal." she explained.

"That's a good way of honoring him," I nodded.

"Yeah, it's how I remember him, just like how I don't nickname Pikachu." Tay nodded. "Now let's get some sleep."

I nodded and returned to my sleeping bag.

**A/N:**

** Skitty: Hi! Nothing Psychic wanted me to say today except to remember to review and happy holidays!**


	13. Chapter 13

** A/N:**

** PsychicEevee: Hello! I've been REALLY lazy, I meant to update exactly a week ago on my birthday, but I forgot, my brother hogged the computer, and life otherwise got in the way.**

** No reviews? Seriously?**

** The disclaimer's the same as usual: I don't own Pokemon, only my OCs: Cloudy, Flame, Tay, and Mike, as well as the idea.**

(**Tay's POV (again)**)

The next morning dawned cool and clear. After breakfast, Mike and I set out for Azalea Town. I calculated that we should arrive that day. Sure enough, we had only been walking about two hours when we came up to it. I went to the Pokemon Center, noticing that the Slowpoke population in the town was as large as ever, and got a room for me and Mike before heading to the yard to do some training. I was planning on using Dad, Avis, and Mom for this battle, since I felt Pikachu could use a break and I'd pretty much promised Avis a chance for this one after the change of plans at Violet City.

We were planning on going to the Azalea Gym today, since the Contest was in a couple days. After some light warm-ups, Mike returned and we went to the Gym.

The Gym looked just as I had remembered it: a greenhouse filled with a dark forest and a large amount of bug Pokemon. A few minutes after we walked in, we met up with the Gym Leader: a young boy with lilac hair, blackish-purple eyes, and wearing mostly tan-and-green clothes while carrying a large net.

"Why are you here?" he asked.

"Bugsy, I'm here to challenge you to a battle," I stepped forward, Mom and Dad following suit.

"I accept. Follow me." the young Gym Leader turned and left through the bushes. Mike and I followed him.

After a lot of making our way through the foliage, we arrived at an official Pokemon League battlefield with a referee standing in the middle block.

After we took our places in the Trainer blocks, the referee stated the rules, "This will be a three-on-three Pokemon battle with the Hive Badge at stake. Only the challenger is allowed to substitute Pokemon. Are you ready?"

"Yeah," both Bugsy and I nodded.

"Send out your first Pokemon,"

"Go, Shedinja!" Bugsy threw his Pokeball, which opened to reveal a floating, husklike Pokemon with a white haloish thing above its head.

_This is going to be tough. Shedinja have low endurance, but their ability, Wonder Guard, more than makes up for it,_ I thought quickly. "Flame, let's go!" My father stepped up to the proverbial plate.

"I'm ready!" he called out confidently.

"Battle begin!" the referee held up the two flags.

"I'll start this off! Shedinja, use Fury Swipes!" Bugsy called. Shedinja quickly flew towards Dad, stretching its claws out.

"Don't let it touch you! Use Flame Charge to strike instead!" I shouted. Dad stomped on the ground until a dust cloud rose around him, then bursts of fire shot out, and Dad, cloaked in fire, raced towards Shedinja. They collided, and even though Dad looked only a little damaged, Shedinja was knocked out.

"Shedinja is unable to battle! Flareon wins!" the referee raised the green flag.

"Thanks, Shedinja. You did great." Bugsy murmured as he returned his Pokemon and took out another Pokeball. "How'd you know Shedinja's weakness is in its type? Or were you planning on starting with your Flareon anyway?"

"No, I was actually hoping to start with a different one and save type advantages for an emergency, but with Shedinja, I had no choice. I know its ability is Wonder Guard, which makes it immune to any Pokemon type that wouldn't normally be super effective on it, so I had to go with a Pokemon with a type advantage." I answered.

"Let's try this one, then! Larvesta, let's go!" Bugsy's Pokemon this time was considerably smaller, predominantly white-and-red, and was on the ground rather than in the air.

"Flame, return!" I shouted. He looked at me, with a look that clearly said, 'Why?' "Your attacks won't be able to do much against Larvesta, so you need to come back for later!" With that, he nodded and trotted back to me. "Cloudy, you're up now!" She walked onto the battlefield confidently.

"Battle begin!"

"I'll kick it off this time! Cloudy, use Quick Attack!" I shouted. My mother darted in, leaving... you know the drill.

"Oh no you don't! Larvesta, use String Shot to wrap that Vaporeon up!" Bugsy countered. Larvesta opened its small mouth and fired a stream of silk at Cloudy.

"Dodge it, quickly!" I yelled, worried. Mom veered off course to dodge the sticky white thread. "Now use Water Gun!" She fired the stream of water at the bug/fire Pokemon which tried to run, but stepped in its own String Shot, got stuck, and was rapidly unstuck by the force of Mom's Water Gun, which pushed it back and out of the String Shot.

"Use Solarbeam!" Bugsy shouted, and Larvesta began gathering sunlight on a point centered above its body.

"Hurry, use Water Pulse while it can't move!" I shouted desperately at Mom, who obeyed, shooting off the sphere of water from the distance. It hit head on, but after that, Larvesta shot the yellow-white beam at her. In my shock that Mom's most powerful move wasn't enough, I didn't tell her to dodge, and she got hit, knocking her back with a cry of pain. She was able to get up again afterward, but barely.

"Cloudy, use Quick Attack to get close, followed by Bubble Beam!" I commanded, thinking quickly. Mom dashed straight up to Larvesta and used her barrage of bubbles, which injured Larvesta and healed her as they hit.

"How come your Vaporeon seems fine now?" Bugsy asked.

"Cloudy's ability is Water Absorb. If she gets hit by a water attack, the remnants of the Bubblebeam in this case, she gets healed instead of hurt." I explained. "Now Cloudy, use Shadow Ball to finish Larvesta off!" She formed the purple sphere and fired it at Larvesta, which almost instantly knocked it out.

"Larvesta is unable to battle, Vaporeon wins!" the referee held up the green flag again.

"Thanks Larvesta, take a good rest," Bugsy said as he returned his Pokemon. "Now for my most powerful Pokemon-Scyther, you're up!"

The large green bug/flying Pokemon appeared with a shout.

"Battle begin!" the referee held up the flags.

"Scyther, use Fury Cutter nonstop!" Bugsy started off. Syther flew towards Mom and swung its scythes at her repeatedly. She kept dodging, but after a while, she got hit.

"Ahh!" she cried out in pain.

"Cloudy, use Water Pulse!" I countered. She shot off her attack, but Bugsy countered my counter by having Scyther use Double Team to dodge and then use Slash. It knocked her out right away.

"Vaporeon is unable to battle, Scyther wins!" the referee held up the red flag. I gently picked Mom up as best I could and carried her back to Mike, laying her down beside him.

"Thanks Cloudy. You did a lot," I smiled before going back to the battle and pulling out a Pokeball. "Avis, you're up!" She appeared in a flash of white light with a loud chirp.

"What kind of Pokemon is that?" Bugsy asked.

"Avis a Tranquill, a normal and flying type Pokemon." I summarized.

"Battle begin!" the referee shouted.

"Scyther, use Aerial Ace to start things off!" Bugsy took the first move. Scyther took off into the air, becoming covered in white streaks as it flew quickly towards Avis. I clenched my teeth; Aerial Ace couldn't be dodged, it would be a waste of time and energy trying. Avis wavered in the air with a cry of pain once she was hit.

"Use Steel Wing and Aerial Ace combined!" I shouted, thinking of it on the fly (no pun intended). As white streaks enveloped Avis, her wings glowed pure white as well. She momentarily disappeared from sight, then struck Scyther with her beak before swerving and striking it with her left wing. Scyther, who'd been hovering in midair, crashed down awkwardly on its back.

"Scyther, I know you can do it. Stand up and use Slash!" Bugsy encouraged. Scyther slowly stood before flying quickly at Avis, slashing at her with its blades.

"Fly up high and use Gust!" I countered. Avis flew up about twenty feet into the air and started flapping her wings, creating a strong and powerful wind.

"Brace yourself by using Swords Dance!" Bugsy countered my counter. Scyther raised its blade-arms over its head and began spinning rapidly, negating all the damage from Gust.

"Avis, stop and use Quick Attack to strike it from the top!" I shouted. Avis quickly stopped the wind and flew down (you know the drill) and hit Scyther squarely.

"Scyther!" Bugsy cried out as it stopped spinning, reeling from the impact of the Quick Attack and the earlier damage from the other attacks.

Scyther shook its head as if to clear it and stood, panting, glaring at Avis. Avis gulped.

"Avis, use Air Cutter!" I shouted, knowing only a little more needed to be done before we won. Avis waved her wings in a motion that looked a bit like an 'X' and sent a light blue wave of wind the same shape to Scyther.

"Dodge with Double Team!" Bugsy shouted a second too late. When there were only two copies of Scyther, the Air Cutter reached both of them and knocked the real Scyther back into a tree. As it fell, it moaned, its eyes swirls.

"Scyther is unable to battle. Tranquill wins and the winner is Tay!" the referee announced.

"Great job Avis!" I gave my Pokemon a hug as she swooped down and landed in front of me. "Now take a good rest," I returned her and turned to Bugsy. "You put up a great battle, though there's something I'm curious about."

"Oh?"

"You have a Larvesta, a very rare Pokemon from Unova, yet you didn't know what kind of Pokemon Avis, a Pokemon that's not uncommon there, is." I said.

"You see, I got this Larvesta as an Egg from a Pokemon breeder who told me he thought I'd bring out the most potential from it. I've never been to the Unova region." Bugsy answered.

"That explains it," I murmured. "Let's take our Pokemon to the Pokemon Center."

After we gave our Pokemon to Nurse Joy, Bugsy gave me the Badge. It was circular, red except for a portion of black on the top and black spots on the red area.

"You fought very well, Tay." he smiled as he handed it to me. "You really commanded your Pokemon well. How long have you had them?"

"Cloudy and Flame were my first Pokemon, I got them about a year ago, but I only got Avis about a week ago." I replied.

"A week?!" Bugsy shouted.

"Yeah," I nodded.

"Ah" Bugsy said before turning to Mike, who'd been watching. "Are you going to challenge me tomorrow?"

"No," Mike smiled while shaking his head. "I'm a Coordinator, I'm participating in the Contest here next week."

"I'll cheer for you," Bugsy promised.

**A/N:**

** PsychicEevee: Hello! Next chapter will be Mike's Contest... and the introduction of a new player to the scene. Mike's going to have to watch out, I'll say that much. Don't forget to read and review, and I'll see you next time!**


	14. Chapter 14

** A/N:**

** PsychicEevee: Hello! I have a feeling you're going to like this chapter. Here are the responses to reviews:**

** SwordArtOnline2015 (Chapter 1 review): Thanks, but I feel like it was a bit too dramatic, and once I finish the fanfic (I will eventually, I think), I'll go back and rewrite the earlier bits or the bits that I realize later on I don't like, that chapter being among them.**

** Enjoy!**

(**Time Skip: 6 Days**)

Mike and I spent the next six days training and, for Mike, practicing his routine with Hazel. I was mostly helping him with mock-battles and trying mock-Contest battles (using Mike's Poketch as a timer). It was the day of the Contest. I went into the waiting room right before the Contest. As Mike stood, tensed and waiting, I went up to him.

"Good luck!" I smiled. "You'll do great!"

"I'm not too sure," a male voice drawled.

A tan boy with short brown hair only a bit darker than his skin walked up to us. He was wearing a loose white outfit with a black belt.

"So, you're trying this again, eh, what's-you're-name?" he remarked in a snide voice. "Who's your girlfriend?"

"Wha-girlfriend? We happen to be together, that's all!" I shouted, before trying to calm down as I saw my ribbon start to glow out of the corner of my eye.

"Who're you, anyway?" he asked me.

"Tay," I said curtly, already not liking him.

"Well, you look like a decent competitor, at least." he said.

"Sorry, I'm only here to watch MIKE," I emphasized his name.

"Don't waste your time with that loser," he sneered. "Look out for yours truly, Kyo, not him."

"Oh, I will, believe me," my voice was flooding the room with sarcasm. Once he turned away, I said to Mike, with a somewhat cheerier, but still dark, voice, "You had better beat this guy, Mike."

"Yeah, I will!" he told me, his eyes burning with passion.

"I have to go. I'll be cheering for you!" I promised, turning to leave with my Pokemon following. I managed to get a few seats pretty close to the front. Mom and Dad each took a seat next to me, while Pikachu sat in my lap.

After the MC, Carrian Meridian (who had a smattering of freckles on her face and wore a lilac dress) revved the crowd into a frenzy, she announced, "The first Coordinator is Mike from Ecruteak City!" Mike walked onstage He was dressed up for the Contest, wearing a forest green suit with a rose ornament on his lapel.

"Hazel, your time to shine!" he called, tossing a Pokeball in a Capsule with a Seal attached to it.

The special effect of that one was a large pink flower that appeared as a bud, then bloomed to reveal Hazel, not one leaf on her 'scarf' out of place. Mike had thoroughly prepared her for the Contest that morning.

"Goat!" she called out confidently.

"Let's start things off with Razor Leaf!" he shouted. Hazel sent out the leaves from her scarf.

"Next, use Vine Whip to knock them down!" he ordered. Hazel, like in the practice, shot out the vines from her scarf and whipped the leaves down.

"Use Razor Leaf again along with Aerial Ace!" Mike smiled as Hazel shot more leaves out, then used Aerial Ace to stir all of the leaves up around her while pure white streaks outlined her body.

"And Mike's Gogoat is accentuating its grass typing!" Carrian said into her microphone, a wide smile on her face as she announced.

"Let's finish with Seed Bomb!" Mike ordered as Hazel sent large yellow seeds towards the leaves, exploding into fireworks when they made contact.

"Let's hear that the judges have to say!" Carrian waved to them. As usual, the judges were Mr. Contesta, Mr. Sukizo, and the local Nurse Joy. (I wondered how Mr. Contesta and Mr. Sukizo had the time to judge at Pokemon Contests in Kanto, Hoenn, Sinnoh, and Johto, as well as goodness knows how many other regions.)

"That performance accentuated the strength of Mike's Gogoat as well as how powerful a grass type it is." Mr. Contesta said with a neutral smile on his face.

"The coordination between Trainer and Pokemon was remarkable!" Mr. Sukizo said in his signature way.

"The two were about as in sync as I've ever seen a Pokemon and its Trainer," Nurse Joy agreed.

"With that done, let's move on to our next entrant!" Carrian shouted enthusiastically. I kept an eye on the next one, a girl named Stacy. She seemed to be a beginner, though, since she was unfocused and nervous. I chatted with my Pokemon instead, talking about how Mike's performance went.

"He's definitely going on to the next round!" Dad barked.

"I sure hope so..." Mom muttered.

"He did do well..." I said. "I'm pretty sure he'll be going on to the next round, but if that Kyo guy is a good as he says he is, Mike's going to have some tight competition."

"You have a good point." Flame murmured, frowning.

"Pika-chu pika," Pikachu nodded.

After a few more appeals, it was that other boy, Kyo,'s turn. He came up holding a Pokeball, without a Capsule or Seal.

"Mankey, it's time," he said emotionlessly. An unusually large Mankey appeared with a call of "Man mankey!"

"Low Kick," Kyo ordered instantly. "Follow it with Beat Up." Mankey did a fast sweep of its leg, followed by a barrage of attacks.

"Oh!" Carrian stepped back as the Mankey got closer to her, her eyes widening. "This is definitely unusual, showing off a Pokemon's strength rather than appearance!"

"Stop... now," Kyo said, and Mankey stopped dead in its tracks.

"Let's hear some comments!" Carrian, sensing that the routine was over, turned to the three judges.

"Kyo really showed the aggressive nature of his Mankey," Mr. Contesta said.

"The power of his Mankey was remarkable," Mr. Sukizo nodded.

"He was really in sync with it as well," Nurse Joy commented.

"Let's move on!" Carrian smiled.

After the other appeals were over, I went to the waiting room. There Mike stood, nervously gazing at the blank screen. He jumped in surprise when I spoke.

"Don't worry, Mike. Your appeal was one of the best. You'll make it through for sure." I smiled as he looked at me.

"You think so?" he asked, frowning.

"Definitely." I assured him.

"Nah," we both turned to see Kyo. "That performance with your Pokemon was second rate at best. Of course, mine was first rate, but what else would you expect? It was my performance, after all." He thought for a moment. "Though I'll admit, yours was better than most, so you might make it."

"Don't listen to that idiot," I turned to Mike and pointed to Kyo. "I know his type. He's an idiotic fool that only sees himself as good or even decent. He has too much self-esteem for his own good."

Mike smiled at me. "Thanks," he said gratefully.

After a while, the screen turned back on to show Carrian. She announced, "After the difficult deliberation, the judges have come to a decision. Here are the eight Coordinators that are moving on to the Battle Round." The camera panned to another screen, which put up, one by one, faces of eight Coordinators. Both Mike and Kyo were there.

"Alright!" Mike cheered before seeing Kyo's face. "Oh, we both made it."

"I guess I'll see you," Kyo sneered. "Unless, of course, you lose."

"I'm not plannin' to," Mike answered. "I'm gonna win the Azalea Ribbon!"

Kyo laughed. "Impossible. Even IF you make it to the final, you're not getting past me!"

We looked at the battle pairings. It seemed Mike and Kyo wouldn't battle unless they both got to the finals.

Kyo's battle was first, against a boy named Allan. We watched to see his tactics.

"Espeon, go!" Allan called, sending out an Espeon in a flurry of pink bubbles thanks to the Seal he used. That Pokemon appeared with a call of, "I'm ready!"

I shied away, getting flashbacks to when I was six years old and being tormented by an obnoxious Eevee that evolved into an Espeon.

In the battle, Kyo had sent out a large, black and white Pokemon that somewhat resembled an Ursaring, even though I didn't know what it was.

"What Pokemon is that?" I wondered out loud.

"It's a Pangoro, a rare and pretty powerful dark and fighting Pokemon," a girl next to me explained. "That boy's looks more powerful than normal."

In the battle, Kyo ordered his Pangoro to use Arm Thrust. It came in to hit the Espeon.

"Espeon, use Dazzling Gleam!" Allan countered. I couldn't believe it; the move Espeon used was my Blinding Light! After the Espeon let out the burst of pink light, it was surrounded by a pink aura and it tackled Pangoro.

"Guess we know the proper name for my other power now," I muttered to my Pokemon, who agreed with me. Pangoro stumbled back, seeming highly damaged by the attack. Kyo lost a large amount of his points.

"Use Dark Pulse!" Kyo said. Pangoro shot a beam of purple and black circles from between its huge forepaws. It directly hit Espeon, who collapsed on the arena floor, moaning. The judges' panels each made a buzzing sound, and a red 'X' appeared on the black screens on each of them.

"Espeon is unable to battle, and in just one hit!" Carrian gasped. "Kyo is the winner, and will be moving on to the semifinals!"

The other battles were easy for Mike and Kyo both to get through, and soon enough they were facing each other.

"Frank, you're time to shine!" the Seal of Frank's Capsule was that of a large fire that roared, then went out to reveal Frank from the middle.

"Pangoro, it's time," Kyo said as emotionlessly as he did in the preliminaries. As with before, there wasn't a Seal or Capsule on the Pokeball, so the large Pokemon appeared without a special effect, just a flash of light. "Pangoro, use Hammer Arm!" Pangoro ran to Frank raising its arms, which started to glow white.

"Dodge and use Swift!" Mike countered. Mike shot the star-shaped energy at Pangoro, but even though it hit and cost Kyo points, it didn't seem to do much damage.

"Use Slash!" Kyo said angrily. Pangoro ran at Frank more quickly than one would've thought for such a large Pokemon and managed to send Frank flying through the air before Mike could react.

"Frank, counter with Flame Wheel!" Mike shouted. Frank flared up the flames on his back as he curled into a ball and started to roll quickly toward Pangoro.

"Use Dark Pulse!" Kyo frowned. Pangoro shot off the beam of purple and black circles at Frank, but he simply rolled to the side to dodge while taking in the darkness of the attack, making Kyo lose points long before Frank hit. Unfortunately Pangoro managed to dodge, which had Mike losing plenty of points.

"Wow," I commented. "This is a really up-and-down battle."

"Yeah," Cloudy agreed.

Back in the battle, Kyo shouted, "Pangoro, Aerial Ace, now!" Pangoro jumped into the air, becoming enveloped in white streaks as it temporarily disappeared from view.

"Use Flame Wheel in place!" Mike shouted for some reason. As Frank started to spin in place, being surrounded by fire, I understood.

"That's a good strategy," I nodded in approval. "He's making it so that even though Pangoro's got a guaranteed hit, it'll hurt both of them."

Pangoro did indeed hit Frank, but also cringed backwards as it got hit be the flames. Kyo and Mike both lost some points. There were thirty seconds left on the clock.

"Use Flamethrower, quickly!" Mike ordered, and Frank shot out a stream of fire from his mouth towards Pangoro, who was hit hard just as time ran out.

"And the winner is..." Carrian said. I looked at the scores. They seemed to be even. However, Mike seemed to have just a little more points than Kyo. "Mike of Ecuuteak City!"

Mike's eyes widened visibly as he saw the screen change to him, Hazel, and Frank. "We... won... ALL RIGHT!" He sent out Hazel and hugged her and Frank.

A bit later, Mike was standing on a raised portion of the stage with his Pokemon as Mr. Contesta presented him with the Azalea Ribbon.

"Congratulations Mike," he said, handing the Ribbon, which was too small for me to see clearly, to him.

"Alright! I got the Azalea Ribbon!" Mike cheered, reminding me all too much of Ash as his Pokemon cheered alongside him.

When we met up, I smiled. "Great job Mike. You've gotten another Ribbon!" (**A/N: I forgot to mention this before, but Mike had one Ribbon at the time he met Tay and her Pokemon.**)

"Yeah, that makes two now." he smiled back. "Only three more to go!"

"While I only have six Badges!" I replied.

"Yep! Let's go together for our goals," Mike said. We high-fived each other in agreement.

**A/N:**

** PsychicEevee: Hello! So we have a few developments. Mike now has two Ribbons, as well as a rival in the form of Kyo. No, I'm not going to have Mike win all of his ribbons long before Tay wins all her Badges. Also, before you ask, Kyo has one Ribbon. See you next chapter, and don't forget to review!**


	15. Chapter 15

** A/N:**

** PsychicEevee: Hello! Come on, no new reviews?!**

** I don't own Pokemon! I only own the idea, as well as my OCs. Enjoy!**

We stayed in Azalea Town for the night. The next day, I noticed something was in the room that hadn't been there the night before: an Egg was next to Mom and Dad. It had a familiar design: brown, with a tan zigzag across the middle. It was an Eevee Egg.

I took a deep breath before I started. "I'm not going to ask how-" I'd heard enough parents, Pokemon or human, telling their young about 'The Pidgeys and the Beedrills' more than enough when I was travelling by myself- "But I will ask, is this yours?" They nodded quietly. "Then doesn't that mean... I'm going to be a big sister?"

"Yes," they answered together.

"Oh...kay..." I said quietly. "I'm going to do some meditation before breakfast." With that I assumed my meditation position and started. I meditated for about thirty minutes before Mike evidently got up and saw the Egg.

"Wha... how..." he stammered.

"Don't ask how," I said quietly, opening my eyes. "And I've already asked; it's theirs." I stood up and picked up the Egg. "I need to ask Nurse Joy for an incubator for the Egg. Once I've got it, we can pack up and start heading to Goldenrod City for the Gym. That sound good?"

"Yep!" he nodded, so I headed out to the front room, where Nurse Joy sat behind a counter.

"Nurse Joy, do you have an incubator I can have?" I asked, gesturing with one hand to the Egg.

"Sure, but first, should I give it an examination?" she smiled.

"That'd be great, thanks!" I handed it over before bending down to soothe my parents, who were obviously as protective of the Egg as they were of me (and then some), which was understandable, seeing how it was their child and all. After I accomplished that, Nurse Joy returned with said Egg in the incubator, which had a Pokeball attached to the top.

"Your Egg is in perfect condition," she said, passing it back to me. "Should I give your other Pokemon a checkup as well?"

"No thanks, Nurse Joy. My friend and I are leaving for Goldenrod City today, and we want to make good time." I explained. She nodded in understanding as Mike came into view.

"Have you gotten the incubator yet?" he asked before seeing it. "Alright, let's go!" His stomach rumbled. "Oops, I guess I forgot breakfast!" Right on cue, my and Pikachu's stomachs pitched in, making me blush.

We ate a quick breakfast and left, walking until noon. We chatted absently as we walked, and I brought up something I'd been curious about since I had met Mike's Pokemon. "How'd you get Zack and Hazel? Their species aren't native to Johto after all."

"Oh, that's easy," he said. "Zack's the child of my dad's Manectric, I got him as an Egg when I started my journey. Hazel I got when she was a Skiddo, the pre-evolved form of Gogoat, when a kid asked me to take care of her, since he had found her but was not allowed to take care of her, since he was too young to become a Trainer."

"Ah," I said, understanding. We continued walking until noon, at which point we found a clearing and made lunch. Afterward, we trained. Mike was working with Alex and Clarisse on a Double Performance combination, while I left everyone to do their own training. I wasn't sure we were far enough away from civilization yet to transform or use any moves (I didn't want my secret to be found out by anyone I didn't trust), so I just meditated.

(**Time Skip: That night**)

That night I couldn't sleep, even before my nightmare for the night. Mike looked up as I stood, shaking my pile of blankets (I didn't have a sleeping bag, since I hoped my nightmares would end sometime soon and if that was the case, I'd want to be able to cuddle with my Pokemon again and a sleeping bag wouldn't allow me to do that) off.

"I'm going for a walk," I answered his unspoken question. "You guys go ahead and go to sleep. I'll be back soon." With that I went through the bushes into the woods.

I was about to turn back when I heard a voice through the bushes.

"... The silver Pokemon."

I'm not one to eavesdrop, but mentioning me by my role in the legend got me. I crouched down and got as close as I dared to the bushes.

"Silver... Pokemon?" Another voice, younger sounding and less sure of himself than the other, female voice, asked.

"Yes. There is an age-old legend about our master and another Pokemon." the woman answered.

"What other Pokemon?" the teenager (he didn't sound any older than fifteen) questioned.

"It changes with every incarnation." the woman said. "The legend goes that every one thousand years our master rises up, but fifteen years before one Pokemon is given powers to stop it. That one Pokemon's colors then become silver instead of its normal coloration." She paused before continuing. "The Pokemon is different every time, so our current goal is to discover and annihilate this reincarnation of the silver Pokemon." My eyes widened and I turned to run away, but the bush I was behind rustled as I did so. This got the attention of the two.

They threw a few things that sounded suspiciously like Pokeballs.

"Get that girl!" both of them shouted. I heard the sound of paws hitting the ground behind me as I ran. I couldn't outrun those Pokemon for long as something pounced onto my back, pinning me onto the ground and growling as Mightyena surrounded me. I froze. I heard footsteps coming up to me, and two humans stepped into my limited view.

The woman was tall and mean looking, with long, pitch black hair and sharp black eyes that resembled bottomless pits, and the other was a teenaged boy with messy red hair and brown eyes. They were both wearing a dark red and black hoodie and black pants with dark grey shoes.

"An eavesdropper?" the woman smirked. "You can't leave, not after hearing what you seem to have."

I decided to play dumb. "What was I supposedly hearing?"

The woman didn't buy it. "You heard what I was telling my... comrade." She jerked her head towards the boy for a moment before turning back to me. "Therefore, we cannot let you go. Would you be a good girl and not struggle?" She took out a Pokeball and brought out a Hypno, which leered at me.

"Hypno, use Hypnosis to put that girl to sleep!" the woman commanded. Hypno bent down a little and started swinging its pendulum back and forth. My eyes unwillingly followed. Hypno spoke. I couldn't tell what it was saying, but I started to get more and more tired. I tried to resist, but I couldn't close my eyes to the pendulum or tune out Hypno's low, quiet voice. I didn't know how long had gone by when my eyes finally closed.

"That took longer than I hoped." I heard the woman's voice before I became unconscious.

**A/N:**

** PsychicEevee: I actually have something to say. I realize I'm slow with updating and as such, my writing style can vary a lot. However, I've recently been thinking that I want to rewrite Tay's entire life (for one thing, I have writer's block, and updates get even slower when I do). I also want to change how Tay looks. since Shiny Pokemon are confirmed in the anime, there may be other Shiny Eevees, and the only difference between Tay and other Shiny Eevees (physically, not in terms of powers) is her eyes. Please leave your opinion as to whether or not it's a good idea in the reviews. (Note that rewriting will mean frequent updates, or at least more frequent than you're getting now.)**


	16. Note and Not-So-Little Montage

**A/N:**

**PsychicEevee: Yes, I know you were hoping for a chapter. I'm sorry, but this isn't one. I've put a lot of thought into this, and I've decided to delete this story and start posting my new one (once I think of a good title for it). It's a shame, really, because I'd only posted about half of what I'd written of The Time After. However, I've decided to overhaul the story, writing pretty much Tay's entire life. I don't even know if I'm going to keep it in the anime universe, though I think I'm going to keep some of the basic aspects of it. I don't know whether or not I'll have Ash and the gang in it yet, I've only written enough material for a few chapters. However, to make it up to you I'll post some of what I had planned for the next few chapters of TTA.**

(**? POV**)

I was having trouble sleeping when I heard a noise. The guards opened the door to the cell. They were carrying something... I wasn't sure what. They threw the bundle to the floor inside the small room. I ran to it.

"Where am I?" I muttered to myself.

The Egg, still glowing, changed shape.

_I looked at my child in wonder. Instead of being brown like most Eevees, she was so pale a shade of silver, it was almost as if she was giving off her own light._

_My heart broke more and more with each step she took._

"You'll never carry out those 'plans' of yours!"

I was on the floor, nearly unconscious...

"_Help!_" the voice shouted. It sounded like a girl.

Words can't express how I felt when I breathed fresh air for the first time in months. It renewed me, revitalized my spirit. But it did more than that. Seeing the sun, feeling it against my skin, moved me to tears. I smiled at the world around me, relieved to be outside; free to go where I wanted.

I closed my eyes for a moment and the next thing I knew, I was asleep.

_The doctors say it was lucky none of your bones are broken._

I devoured it like how Ash had always eaten Brock or Cilan's food.

He landed straight in front of Kai and almost right away started to scold us for being away for so long.

"That's a lame excuse." I informed him. "Are you ready now?"

we entered Tay's room. Oddly enough, though, she was asleep. Except for when we first met and when we had just been freed, I'd never seen Tay sleeping. She looked at lot more relaxed when she was sleeping, with the tiniest of smiles on her face. Except for the last day we'd seen each other, I'd never seen Tay really smile.

"Hey Tay, why'd you seem scared of Meowth for a moment there?" I asked her.

She stiffened and started to give excuses rapidly. "Scared? Who was scared? I was just startled, that's all..."

It wasn't fair that Mommy and Daddy didn't let me out of the cave unless Uncle Mike was there. I wanted to play so much, but he was always searching for my big sister, this 'Tay'. I wanted to meet her, but even more than that I just wanted to go outside!

"Where'd he go?"

"He's bound to be around here somewhere."

"Pika ka pikachu pi, chupi pika."

"Let's go look."

"Hi," I waved timidly, suspecting what was about to happen.

"TAY!"

"TAY!"

"Where were you?"

"Do you have any clue how worried we were?"

"You promised not to run away!"

"Pikachu pi pika ka chukka pichu pika pika!"

"To answer those questions, I was kidnapped, injured, and only just was allowed to go looking for you, and I did have a clue. I didn't mean to run away, honest!" I said.

"You were kidnapped?" Mike, who had come out with them, asked.

"Let's get some sleep," I yawned. "My little brother woke me up right after I got to sleep." I gave him a mock stink-eye.

"Sorry..." he muttered.

I froze, still recalling that incident way back when I was young. Liam, though, seemed fascinated as the Sun Pokemon used Confusion to lift a heavy-seeming boulder into the air, hold it suspended for a good few minutes, and put it back down without a sound. It was only after that was done that Angelo noticed us.

"Guys, can we go somewhere a bit less public? I need to show you something," I requested.

"Tay?" Mike asked.

"We won't be long. I just have to show you something," I told them.

"Okay..." he muttered. We went to the forest right outside of town, close enough to make it back to the Pokemon Center with a pretty short walk, but far enough away that I could be certain no prying eyes would see.

"Kiki, Kai, you remember when we were comparing what oddly colored Pokemon we've seen, and I mentioned the one I thought those guys were after?" I asked.

"Huh?" Angelo muttered, clueless.

"It was when you were asleep, Angelo. I told them about a silver Eevee I grew up knowing." I summarized. "Could you guys let out all your Pokemon? I feel that would be best."

"Okay," they all muttered, taking out a couple Pokeballs each and tossing them. Out of the ones Kiki threw came a Houndour, Meowth, and the Ponyta with the blue mane she told me about (and it was even more stunning than I thought it would be). Kai had a Skarmory, Sneasel, and Meinfoo. Angelo's Espeon stepped forward, and a Wooper and Sunflora appeared out of the Pokeballs he tossed.

"What about your Pokemon? You do have more, right?" Kai asked.

"Yes, but they, along with all of Mike's Pokemon, know about what I'm about to show you." I explained. Pikachu and Liam jumped off of my shoulders. I started my transformation, closing my eyes as I did. _I want to be a Pokemon again._ When my eyes opened, the others looked a lot taller, and they were all (except for Mike and my Pokemon) shocked to say the least.

"T-Tay?" Kiki stuttered.

"Y-you're the silver Pokemon?" Kai asked.

"_Yeah, it's me,_" I switched to telepathy, much to the shock of the others (except Mike and my Pokemon again). "_You see now why I wanted to go somewhere private?_"

"Yeah. If any ol' person knew you're a Pokemon and human at the same time..." Kiki trailed off.

"_It's because of a legend that's going to come true in a bit more than a year,_" I started. "_Every thousand years, a great evil rises. However, fifteen years before, one Pokemon is chosen to stop this evil. From birth, they're given special powers to combat the evil. To identify them as the special Pokemon, their coloration becomes different than the rest of their kind. They become silver. That one Pokemon is destined to defeat the great evil._"

I had a vivid memory of it being a normal type Gym (Though for some reason, Whitney had used a Nidorina). (**A/N: Let it be known that I resent the fact that Whitney used a Poison type in her battle against Ash in the anime.**)

Clefable's arms glowed when they stopped. Clefable opened its mouth and sent several sound waves at Mom.

"Cloudy, that's Hyper Voice! Quick, use Quick Attack to dodge it!" I shouted, knowing how powerful that move could be. Mom dashed out of the way at the last second, leaving a white streak behind. Since she had been right in front of me when the attack was launched, I had to jump myself to avoid it.

"I'm sorry! I'm so, so sorry!" Whitney shouted. "I really didn't mean for that to happen!"

"No harm done, right?" I smiled as I landed.

He paused to think for a little while before speaking. "... I don't want to change my name." He paused for a moment. "I've always been Liam, and that's what I'll always be."

"That's very wise Liam." I smiled.

"Thanks. Could I start training now?" he asked with an impatient bounce, making me remember that he was still my kid brother.

We had turned a corner when I saw three awfully familiar figures, with the emphasis on awful.

The first was a young woman, no older than 25. She had long magenta hair and blue eyes. She had round green earrings, and was wearing an outfit I didn't recognize for her: a pale yellow blouse and a purple skirt with white socks and blue shoes.

The next was a young man, about the same age as the woman. He had short light blue hair and green eyes. He, too, was wearing an unusual outfit for him (and that's saying a lot, given how many different things I've seen him wearing; as in, I've seen him in everything from a suit to a tutu). He was in a green shirt and navy slacks and sturdy-looking black shoes.

The third figure was not human. It was a Meowth, standing on two legs like a human and dressed like one as well.

"I... forgive you," I muttered, stunned I felt that way myself. The trio stood back up. "I should want to destroy you right now, but I don't." I shook my head. "I don't know why myself, but... I feel like you should get a second chance, even with past loves for Meowth."

"Huh?" he asked. I turned to Kiki.

"Wha... oh yeah!" she pulled out a Pokeball and sent out her Meowth. Meowth stared.

"Meowzie?" he asked.

"Sure. I already can't wait!" James replied. I smiled, happy (ish) that James, who seemed the nicest of the trio, had finally gotten together with Jessie. (It was obvious that they liked each other, at least since the calming presences around me had made me able to make me notice such things.)

I pulled out a somewhat larger box and opened it to reveal three stones about the size of the Everstone. One was blue with what looked like bubbles inside, one was green with a yellow bolt of lightning inside it, and the last one was red with what looked like a fire inside. "I bought these so if Liam wanted to evolve into a Vaporeon, Flareon, or Jolteon I'd be prepared. Not to mention if Pikachu ever wanted to evolve he could."

"Really, Tay?" Liam, who I'd almost forgotten I'd brought with me, asked.

"Of course. Although, I probably wouldn't let you evolve right away if you'd chosen to," I told him, ruffling the fur between his ears. He ducked away as I giggled.

The result was a single, huge sphere. The light emanating from it drew the attention of Mike, Mom, and Alex, who were the closest to where I was. I held the huge sphere above my extended hands, looking at it carefully.

It was a mix of light blue, white, and dark purple. It had to have been at least eighteen inches in diameter, and pulsating with light and sheer power.

I stared at it with a mixture of awe, amazement, and slight fear.

"What... what's that, Tay?" Mike asked slowly.

"I mixed my Shadow Ball and Aura Sphere, and this is the result," I whispered.

"Wow..." Mom breathed.

"I need to test this out," I said quietly, turning and walking toward a large boulder. Shoving my arms out, I threw the sphere at the boulder. There was an explosion and when the dust cleared, that was all that was left of the once huge boulder. My eyes widened.

"No way..." I said, my voice incredibly tiny. "I don't know if I should be able to control that kind of power..." I realized I was shaking. I swallowed. "Umm... let's just forget I did that."

"Yeah," Mike answered, nodding slowly.

With that done, I took a deep breath to get control of myself and got back to training.

I sighed. _That boy is so like Ash it's hard to believe..._ I took a deep breath. "We'd better follow him, or we'll lose him when we get there. It's a big place."

Mike led us through the city, taking a winding path for some reason or another. Eventually we got to a part of Ecruteak City that had a more suburban look than the rest of it, with houses with respectable sized yards and probably backyards. Mike walked up to a dark green house with somewhat lighter trim. It had a porch with a couple of potted plants framing the door.

"Here we are," he announced happily. He walked onto the porch, got something from the potted plant on the left-a key, probably-and opened the door, replacing the object as he did.

"Guys! I'm home!" he called.

A moment later, something yellow and blue tackled Mike down. We all turned, startled. A split second later I recalled when he had told me about how Zack was actually the child of his dad's Manectric. I smiled at the sight. The Manectric was larger than most, and had some sort of collar on. The Manectric started licking Mike's face, and he laughed and tried to push it off. We all watched, smiling.

Three people came in to the front room.

One was a man with spiky dark blue hair and eyes. He was wearing a blue and green shirt and black pants and dress shoes. He had a dark red and blue band on his right wrist with what seemed like a marble imbedded in it.

The other adult was a woman with long green hair and amber eyes. She was wearing a pale green dress under a white apron. She had probably been cooking something when we had come in.

The final one was a young girl, who couldn't have been much older than five years old. She was in a pink tee shirt with a picture of a Skitty on it, almost life size, and a lilac skirt. She was clutching a Teddiursa doll in her arms.

"Mike, you're home!" the man smiled.

"It's nice to see you again, it's been ages," he smiled back.

"Mike," the woman started. I saw the starting of a scold. "You promised to call whenever you got to a Pokemon Center! What happened to that? We haven't heard from you in more than three months! We were so worried!"

"Ma'am, it was because we were away from civilization for several months." I cut in, stepping forward. "He must have forgotten during that time." Mike looked at me with a relieved smile as he nodded quickly He was silent, but his eyes were very clearly saying, _I owe you one_.

Mike brought us across town from where we were staying.

"This is probably one of the best places in town!" he assured us, his eyes glimmering, before giving us a warning. "Just brace yourselves for anything."

We eventually found ourselves outside of some old ruins that were probably a building once. It looked like it had gone through quite some experience. I looked at Mike, who was grinning with anticipation.

"This is the Burned Tower," Mike explained. "This is one of the only places here I've never been. We were only allowed in here if we had Pokemon. Since I left home as soon as I got my first Pokemon, I've never been in here. I've heard stories though, of all sorts of crazy things!"

"Like?" Kai asked, making a 'go on' sort of gesture with his hand.

"Umm... if I may cut in, have you ever heard anything about fires that can't be put out?" Tay intervened.

"Yeah, I think I've heard that a couple times." Mike nodded. "How'd you know?"

"Pikachu, Meowth, and I have been here before," she answered. "It was the first time we went through Johto."

"So are all the rumors true?" Mike asked. "Are there really-"

"Let's not ruin the surprise!" Tay giggled quietly, a rare mischievous gleam in her eyes.

"Okay..." he muttered. Meowth, recalling this place, smiled himself.

"When dey figure out it's..." Mike leaned down and covered Meowth's mouth. He struggled for a moment, his claws accidentally making long gashes in the bracelet we'd made out of the Everstone for him, before relaxing. Mike removed his hand. "I get it! No tellin'!"

Mike nodded, and we went inside.

It was dark inside, the only light coming from the entryway and some snatches where light trickled in. Liam was constantly talking, even though I couldn't understand him. After a few moments Pikachu climbed onto Tay's head from her right shoulder and carefully put his tail over Liam's mouth, saying quietly, "Pika, chu chupi."

A few minutes of exploration later, everything became dark. Tay's eyes narrowed, and she carefully turned her head (Pikachu had gotten back on her shoulder) to look around. There was a rumbling sound, and all the remaining light vanished. We all whisked around to see that something had blocked the exit.

"Great. Just PERFECT," I muttered. Tay and the Pokemon she said had been here before had a very neutral look on their faces, though it was obvious Meowth was having some trouble with his. With some crashes, I could just barely make out something else falling from above, something really heavy. Tay sighed quietly.

"You really like going over the top, don't you?" she asked out loud to apparently no one. "You can come out now! I know you're there!"

I heard something that sounded like a whine, and the area was flooded with light again.

By the time I could see again, several Pokemon had appeared. Many of them were what looked mostly like balls of purple gas, but they were also black balls that looked to be their faces. Some of them were also purple, but these ones seemed a bit more solid, and had hands. One of them, however, was completely unlike the others. For one, it wasn't levitating. It looked a bit like Liam, but it definitely wasn't an Eevee. It was dark grey, with red paws, eyelids, and eyebrows, and there was a tuft of fur at the top of its head, part of which was red. It was partially black as well, at the mane around its neck, as well as the inside of its ears. Its eyes were human-like, except there wasn't a pupil. Its irises were teal.

Tay blinked.

"A Zorua?" she muttered. "What's a Unova-native Pokemon doing in Johto?"

"A Zorua, huh?" I muttered, pulling out my Pokedex and, after opening it, pointed it at Zorua.

"**Zorua, the Tricky Fox Pokemon. Zorua keeps its true form veiled under an illusion most of the time. When the illusion takes the form of a human, its tail remains unless it is highly skilled.**" the Pokedex recited.

"Cool!" Kai shouted, his eyes gleaming. "I think I'll catch it!"

"Hold on, please!" a voice came from behind us. We turned to see a man with blonde hair and brown eyes holding his hand out in a stopping gesture. His hair was held back by a purple sweatband. He was wearing a black shirt and white pants, with a purple and red scarf and purple and brown shoes.

He was about to continue on the comment of the Zorua, but his eyes fixed on Mike. "Michael!"

Mike smiled. "Morty!" He sprinted towards him. "It's great to see you again!"

"Same here," Morty nodded. "It's been ages since you've come to the Gym!"

"Sorry, Morty. I've become a travelling trainer, and I only recently got back here," Mike explained, sheepishly rubbing the back of his head.

"So who're your friends?" Morty asked. We all stepped forward and introduced ourselves.

Morty's eyes narrowed dangerously as he saw Meowth.

"I remember that Meowth. I doubt there's another one out there that walks and talks like a human," he muttered. "That one tried to steal three Pokemon from their trainers alongside his gang!"

"He's turned over a new leaf," Mike assured Morty.

"You're lucky I trust Mike's judgment, Meowth," he said. "But don't think I won't be keeping my eye on you." He turned to the Ghost Pokemon and the Zorua. "Guys, don't bother these people while they're here. Okay?" They all nodded, albeit reluctantly.

"How come a Zorua's here anyway?" Tay asked. "Aren't they only native to Unova?"

"Normally, yes," Morty nodded. "I found that one a couple months ago. It seems to like helping the Ghost Pokemon scare anyone that comes in here."

"Zoruas tend to like playing tricks," Tay nodded.

"How do you know?" the Gym Leader (or at least I presumed he was, since he had asked Mike about meeting him at the Gym) questioned, raising an eyebrow.

"I've known some Zoruas in the past," she explained.

"Ah," Morty nodded.

After chatting for a little while more, we all scattered to do some things around the city. I stayed in the tower. I couldn't explain why, but I was fascinated by the Zorua.

"Having the ability to seem to change one's appearance at will must be very handy." I told it, crouching down so we were at the same level.

Zorua barked, backing up slightly.

"You don't have to be scared of me," I smiled. "I won't hurt you." I extended one hand to let the Zorua take in my scent. It carefully pressed its wet nose to my hand as it took me in.

(**Zorua's POV**)

As I breathed in the girl's scent, she giggled.

"You're tickly, do you know that?" she asked.

"You're funny, do you know that?" I mimicked. I took a couple steps back and flipped backwards, casting an illusion that I was a human, just like her. I giggled as she goggled.

"So that's your illusion, huh?" she asked rhetorically. "It's really cool, but if I remember the Pokedex correctly..." she circled around me. "Yep! Your tail's still showing!" I twisted around until I saw that indeed, my bushy tail was still showing. I focused hard, trying to make it disappear, but it stayed where it was. I blushed.

"You don't have to be embarrassed it's there," the girl smiled at me. I was beginning to like her. She was all smiles, unlike my previous Trainer. "According to the Pokedex, only the best can hide their tails when they look like a human."

"But Mom told me I WAS the best!" I protested.

"Don't worry about it," she assured me. "I'm Kiki, by the way."

"A pleasure," I nodded respectfully, stopping the illusion. I clenched my teeth, remembering what my parents had told me before I left home.

(**Cue Flashback**)

_"__For your own good, remember this: you can NEVER trust a human.__" Dad told me. It was the day before I was two years old, old enough to live by myself like I'd always wanted._

_"__Why not?__" I asked._

_"__All humans ever want to do is catch us, since we're rare Pokemon,__" Mom answered. That was true, as far as I knew. I'd never met another Zorua like me, and the only Zoroark I knew was my mom. (My dad was a Lucario.) "__Don't you get it, my son? If you don't heed our advice, you'll be a slave to those humans forever!__"_

_"__Yes Mom,__" I nodded._

(**Flashback End**)

I had always thought I could never trust a human, especially after I'd been foolish and naïve enough to get myself caught by one on purpose, just to see what they were like. However, this girl, Kiki, she seemed kind. I'd only been treated kindly a very few times in my life, but it was something I always enjoyed.

I wonder..." she muttered.

"Yes?" I asked, knowing she couldn't understand me.

"Tay says Zoruas are native to the Unova region, but that's so far away from Johto," she obviously got the gist of what I was saying as she elaborated. "So why are you here?"

I took the form of a human again, mirroring Kiki's appearance, and as I explained, I took advantage of my powers of illusion to help her understand.

"I was caught in a Pokeball-" I conjured the illusion of a Pokeball and pressed it against the illusion human-"and taken away from my home." I sent the illusion Pokeball flying away before dissipating it.

"So you were caught, and taken somewhere?" Kiki guessed.

We all entered the Gym and, all of us except Mom glad to be out of the rain (especially Dad, being a Fire type and all) went into a standard battlefield. I assumed my place, as did Morty. A man stepped up to the middle to referee.

"This will be a three-on-three Pokemon battle between the Gym Leader Morty and the challenger Tay." the ref announced. _Just like I thought_. "Only the challenger is allowed to substitute Pokemon. Are both sides ready?" We both nodded. "Send out your Pokemon."

"Ladies first," Morty gave a mock-bow. I smiled as I pulled out a Pokeball.

"Alright, let's get this started. Honey, time to kick things off!" I tossed it and my Ursaring appeared in a flash of light. He looked at me, seeing himself on a professional battlefield. "Honey, this is your first Gym Battle, but I feel you're gonna do great. Am I right?" He nodded.

Meanwhile, Morty had called out his Pokemon. "Get 'em, Duskull!" The floating Ghost type appeared with a spooky, almost echoing "Dus..."

"The challenger gets the first move. Begin!" the referee raised the flags.

"Honey, use Metal Claw!" I yelled. He raced forward, raising his paws as his claws started to glow brightly.

"Dodge!" Morty shouted. Duskull quickly floated up.

"Jump!" I shouted, mentally berating myself for forgetting that they could do that. Honey quickly stopped, turned, and jumped high into the air, holding out his claws as he went. Duskull tried to float to the side, but Honey swept a claw out, hitting Duskull hard. It cried out, and plummeted to the ground as Honey landed.

"Nice!" I cheered. The Pokemon around me cheered, as did my friends, who were on the sidelines as usual with Liam. "Next, go in for Crunch!" Honey dove and sank his teeth into Duskull, who cried out in pain before going quiet. "Honey, stop!" He let go and went away. Duskull moaned quietly.

"Duskull is unable to battle, Ursaring is the winner," the referee pointed the green flag at us.

"Great job, my friend," Morty smiled. "Return for a rest." He swapped for another Pokeball and said to me, "Your Ursaring is quite strong. But that was one of my weaker Pokemon, especially in comparison to my other two. Let's really test you! Misdreavus!"

The small, bluish Pokemon let out an earsplitting screech as it appeared, causing all the Pokemon and myself (even when not in Pokemon form, I had senses that were almost as good as a Pokemon's) to cry out and cover our ears. I squeezed my eyes shut.

"Misdreavus!" I could barely hear Morty over the screech as he scolded his Pokemon. "Stop that!" The noise eventually died down, and I slowly uncovered my ears and opened my eyes. "Are you alright?" Morty asked.

"As soon as my ears stop ringing," I answered. "That sure did hurt, though."

"Sorry. I don't tend to use Misdreavus because it tends to do that to get its opponents off-guard." he explained. "That's why I went with Duskull first, not Misdreavus."

"Okay." I answered, shaking my head slightly in an effort to get my ears to stop ringing. "Let's get back to the battle shall we?"

"Begin!" the ref called, agreeing.

"Misdreavus, kick things off with Curse!" Morty called. Misdreavus gained a dark purple aura as it leered at Honey, who then gained the same aura. He cried out in pain. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed Misdreavus looked pretty winded.

"What's that?" I asked, as I'd never seen it before.

"Well, the effect's actually different for Ghost types. For them, the target of the attack steadily loses health." Morty explained. "We may be friends, but don't think for one second that I'll go easy on you!"

"I wasn't expecting you to," I answered. "Honey, Shadow Claw!" As Honey ran forward, his claws became wreathed in a dark purple aura as he slashed at Misdreavus. Neither Morty nor his Pokemon reacted fast enough, possibly because one of my big goals in training was to make everyone as fast as possible (since I knew there were some species that just couldn't go very fast). While some of the newer Pokemon weren't quite at their fastest yet, they were pretty close, Honey being one of them. After hitting Misdreavus, he turned right around, anticipating a counterattack. He cringed as that aura from before returned, though.

That counterattack came. "Psywave!"

Misdrevaus glowed light blue, and fired light blue shockwaves out of its mouth, which Honey dodged some of, but after a little while, he got hit multiple times.

"Honey!" I shouted, concerned. I knew Psywave could be either strong, weak, or in between, and that looked very strong. Misdreavus was relentless, not stopping for nearly long enough for Honey to stand up. He cried out in pain. _Think, Tay, THINK!_ After a few moments, an idea finally popped into my mind. I held up a Pokeball. "Honey, return!" He disappeared. I looked at Pikachu. "You're up next!" He nodded and scampered onto the field.

"Begin!"

"Pikachu, Quick Attack into Iron Tail!" I shouted. Pikachu darted up to Misdreavus before jumping and, his tail glowing, hit it hard, sending it down hard. Pikachu landed smoothly on all fours and stood.

"Get up! I know you can do it!" Morty urged his Pokemon, which slowly looked up, then started to float. "Great! Next, Pain Split!" Misdreavus smirked and rammed into Pikachu. A ray of energy slammed into Pikachu, coming from Misdreavus' side and hitting him in the back. Misdreavus then floated away, looking much better than it had before. Pikachu, on the other hand, looked pretty badly hurt.

"Pikachu!" I called.

He twisted around to give me a smile and thumbs up. "Pika-pikachu pika, pichu."

"Great! If you're fine, Thunderbolt!" I shouted. He charged up and quickly fired the bolt of electricity. Misdreavus screamed in pain as the attack hit, but remained levitating when it was done.

"Shadow Ball!" Morty ordered. Misdreavus formed a black ball in front of its mouth and hurled it at Pikachu, who quickly dodged. "Keep at it until you hit!" Misdreavus quickly formed another ball, and another, and another, repeatedly firing them at Pikachu.

"Use Agility to evade them, and when you get a chance, use Volt Tackle!" I shouted. Pikachu nodded, got on all fours, and started appearing and disappearing more and more rapidly. After a while, Misdreavus started getting tired, and Pikachu got a chance. Now behind Misdreavus, he started running up to it, becoming cloaked in electricity as he chanted, "Pikapikapikapikapikapika... chupi!" He hit Misdreavus and landed, sparking a bit as he did: the cost of such a powerful attack. He panted, having obviously taken a lot of damage from the combination of the earlier Pain Split and the recoil from using Volt Tackle. Misdreavus, to its credit, managed to float about a foot on the ground.

"Come on, Misdrevaus! Use Psybeam!"

"Thunderbolt!"

The two beams met in the middle. At first glance, they seemed even, but Misdreavus was losing the strength needed to keep that up far faster than Pikachu, and as such, the Thunderbolt started to inch closer to Misdreavus.

Morty frowned. "Destiny Bond!" he shouted just as Misdreavus lost the strength to use Psybeam. It became surrounded in purple just as the attack hit. It screamed and collapsed. As it did, two purple swirls came out of its eyes and hit Pikachu. He collapsed as well.

"Both sides are unable to battle!" the referee shouted, holding up both flags. Morty returned Misdreavus while I ran onto the battlefield, kneeled, and picked up Pikachu. He stirred in my arms and his eyes opened a slit.

"Pi-ka?" he asked weakly.

"You did great buddy," I smiled. "For now, just get some rest. You more than deserve it." I carried him over to the sidelines, where my friends were standing, and handing him to Mike. He cradled Pikachu softly in his arms like he would a baby. I walked back to the Trainer's box and mulled over my choices quickly, then decided.

"Flame, let's do this!" I smiled at my dad (**A/N: Remember, in public she has to call her parents by their nicknames so no one gets suspicious**) and he got on the battlefield. On the sidelines, I heard Liam cheering for his daddy to win.

Meanwhile, Morty just called, "Gengar!" From what seemed to be the floor a humanoid purple Pokemon rose. _I know it wasn't in the floor. It was in Morty's shadow all along._

"Begin!"

"Flame, Double Team followed by Shadow Ball!" I shouted. Dad seemed to split in five, all around Gengar, before each copy charged a purple and black sphere in front of their mouth and fired them at Gengar, who merely floated upwards. I growled softly. "Again!" He shot another Shadow Ball. This time Gengar floated off to the side and turned invisible. _Ratatas!_ I thought. _It took Foresight for Ash to beat the invisibility, and neither dad nor Honey have it!_ The Shadow Ball kept going, and it hit the roof, letting a circle of rain in. _Wait, rain, maybe... that's it!_

"Flame, can you jump to the ceiling?" I asked. He looked at me with a look that very clearly said, _Tay, what're you planning?_ He nodded. "Good, then jump to the ceiling and use Iron Tail!" He jumped and hit the ceiling with his now glowing tail. This made the ceiling crack and crumble. "Get out of there, quickly!" I shouted. He jumped from piece to piece until he was away from the rubble. After it had finished, Gengar reappeared, rubbing its head like it was in pain. The rain from outside poured in, much to Dad's disliking. "Sorry, Flame. And sorry for the damages, Morty. I realized something that'll help me beat you, but I needed the ceiling to be out of the way first."

"Eh, worse has happened to the Gym before," he shrugged as Gengar realized it was visible and quickly became invisible again. I focused intently, watching the rain, trying to figure out where Gengar was. My search zoomed in to an area where the rain was splashing like it was hitting a solid object, but it looked like there was only air. "Shadow Ball, right there!" I pointed. Dad quickly fired the sphere and knocked Gengar visible as it zoomed to the ground.

Morty blinked. "How'd you figure it out so fast?"

"The rain," I explained. "I had to see where the rain was splashing where there didn't seem to be anything to splash against."

"That was pretty well thought out," Morty complimented, his eyebrows raised.

"I thought of it when the second Shadow Ball missed and went through the ceiling," I answered.

"Impressive," he nodded. "Well, might as well make it as challenging as possible. Gengar, Hypnosis!"

_Yikes!_ I thought as Gengar swooped in close, its eyes glowing red. I blinked and recalled how Ash countered it back in Sinnoh. "Flame, use your Counter Shield!" _I hope he remembers it._ He nodded and rolled onto his back, started to spin, and used Flamethrower. Gengar was knocked back by one stream of flames into another, and another, and another. _I pity Gengar, though it's lucky the rain is dampening _(**A/N: Pun not intended**)_ the power of Flamethrower._

"Gengar, get away from there!" Morty called out, but it was no use. Gengar was battered again and again by the Counter Shield, unable to move on its own terms. After a few minutes of this, Dad stopped spinning and got back on his paws, rather out of breath. Gengar finally managed to get back in control of its body.

"'Counter Shield'?" Morty asked. "That's one impressive technique you've got there."

"Thanks, but I can't take all the credit. I wasn't the one who thought of it. It was my adopted brother," I admitted. "You'd know him, actually. His name was Ash."

"Ash?!" Morty shouted, astonished. "But why's you say 'was'?"

"He died several months ago," I told him. "I miss him every day."

"He was a powerful Trainer and a good friend." Morty bowed his head. "I was hoping to see him again someday."

"He died much too young," I agreed, before focusing again. "But back to the battle. Flame, Iron Tail!"

Dad ran up to Gengar and jumped, his tail glowing as he flipped and hit Gengar on the head, knocking it down.

"Gengar! Get up and use Confuse Ray!" Morty shouted. Gengar managed to get up. Its eyes started glowing blue, as did Dad's. He started tottering around.

"NO!" I screamed. "Flamethrower!" He turned towards me with a nod, then back to Gengar. He shot off the stream of fire, but it was way off, missing Gengar by what seemed like a mile. Gengar didn't even move.

"Iron Tail!" I called, taking deep breaths to stay calm. This time, though, Dad didn't seem to understand. He rammed into the wall like he was using Tackle. After around the third time, though, he stopped and shook himself.

"Huh? Tay, what happened? How come I have such a huge headache?" he asked.

"You were confused, and ramming into a wall." I answered, glad he'd snapped out of it.

"That was pretty fast," Morty said, an eyebrow raised. "Most Trainers lose after getting hit by Confuse Ray."

"Guess I'm lucky, then," I answered coolly. "Flame, Shadow Ball, then Flame Charge!" He shot out the purple sphere, then cloaked himself in flames and shot after it. Gengar dodged the Shadow Ball, but then got hit by Flame Charge. I had a feeling it was out for good this time. Sure enough, its eyes were spirals.

"Gengar is unable to battle. The winner is the challenger!" the referee announced.

"Alright!" I cheered. "We won!" I ran up to Dad and hugged him. "It looked bad for a little while there, but we did it!" I carefully helped him over to Mom. He was exhausted, and the rubble of the ceiling wasn't helping all that much.

(**A/N: I cannot take the credit for the rain strategy; I had writer's block at that time as to how to let Tay see the ghost Pokemon when they were invisible, and my brother gave me that solution.**)

"You're back?" I heard behind me. Standing up and turning around, I saw Kyo standing in front of me, in his karate getup. "You've been out of the scene for months, yet now you return?"

"Yep. I was gone because I was searching for my friend, but she's come back, and now I'm here." I answered. "Besides, how could I miss a Contest on my own turf?"

I ignored him as he came back, keeping my eyes on the screen. I watched a few more decent appeals, then there was one that caught my eye. Apparently, her name was Surien, and she specialized in water types. She came up in a layered aqua dress with wave designs on the bottom, pale pink tights, and white slippers. She pulled out a Pokeball.

"Bubbles, let's go!" she called, sending out a Vaporeon in a storm of small white bubbles.

"Vaporeon!" it called.

"Let's kick things off with Aurora Beam and Echoed Voice!" she shouted. As a rainbow colored beam shot out of the Vaporeon's mouth, so did several sound waves. They distorted the Aurora Beam into a spiral.

"Up to the ceiling!" she shouted, jumping up and pointing the same direction. The Vaporeon seemed to focus even harder and after a few moments, the spiral turned upward, glowing beautifully as it grew and ascended. After a moment it stopped.

"Next jump and use Water Pulse!" Surien called. The Vaporeon, Bubbles, did just that, jumping high into the air, though nowhere near as high as I'd seen Cloudy jump, and fire the orb of water beneath it, sending a tidal wave over the field. "Acid Armor!" The Vaporeon glowed white for a moment and melted into water, falling into the remnants of the Water Pulse.

"Amazing!" Carrian shouted into the mic she was clutching. "Surien's Vaporeon has shown its unique trait, melting into water. Where it'll appear is anyone's guess!"

Surien closed her eyes for a few moments before opening them again.

"Now!" she called. A spot of the pool glowed across the field from where Surien was, and the Vaporeon jumped out, doing a back flip in midair and landing next to its Trainer, the two struck a pose, signaling that the appeal was over.

"Wow!" Carrian exclaimed. "What a stunning show! First the Aurora Beam and Echoed Voice, then the Water Pulse and the Acid Armor, these two really showed off why Vaporeon is called the Bubble Jet Pokemon!"

I could feel the tension between them. It was so thick it could be cut with a knife.

"Alright! Use Stone Edge next!" Meinfoo made the pointed stones, but instead of firing them at Poliwrath, it fired them at itself.

"Mienfoo, what're you doing?!" Kai shouted.

"It's confused! It can't understand!" Tay shouted from the competitor's area.

The next few matches went through, then it was Mike and the other boy, Dustin,'s turn. They went to the battlefield. Mike sent out Clarisse, while Dustin sent out a Glaceon he called Luca. Tay smiled, sensing how happy the Glaceon was.

"Battle begin!"

"Luca, start off with Swift!" Dustin started. The Glaceon opened its mouth and sent out large star-shaped bits of energy at Clarisse.

"Clarisse, use Hidden Power to block!" Mike countered. Clarisse formed pale blue spheres around her, which made a bit of a shield to deflect the damage of the Swift, though she winced and slid back a bit from the damage; obviously it wasn't all blocked. After a few moments and a large barrage of Swift stars the attack finished.

"Alright, Clarisse, next up use Double Kick!" Mike shouted. Clarisse ran to Luca, turned around, and kicked it hard with both of her back feet, sending the Glaceon flying with a yelp of pain.

"Luca!" Dustin called, quickly throwing himself in the way of his Pokemon's oncoming collision with the wall, making him crash into it instead.

Once the two stopped Luca looked at its Trainer, worried. "Dustin?"

"I'm fine," Dustin assured it as he stood up. "Now then, Ice Shard!" Luca opened its mouth and fired many little shards of ice at Clarisse, who cried out as the attack hit home.

"Clarisse!" Mike called, wide-eyed. "Poison Sting!"

She opened her mouth and shot out many white darts that Mike knew were filled with poison.

"Ah!" the Frest Snow Pokemon cried out as the darts all made their mark.

"Luca!" Dustin shouted. Once the pelting stopped Luca was revealed to have a purple tint in its face. The audience's collective realization was: _It's poisoned..._

Realizing this, Dustin ordered, "Hail, then Blizzard!"

Luca glowed pale blue for a moment before a beam of light the same color flashed up into the sky. Clouds quickly gathered and darkened. Slow at first, but quickly gaining speed, hailstones that ranged in size from the size of a marble to the size of a Pokeball fell. Luca vanished from view. A few moments later, a large gust of heavy, cold snow flew at Clarisse from behind, freezing her. Mike's breath caught.

"Clarisse!" he shouted, but he was helpless. There wasn't anything he could do to avoid the next attack.

"Dig!" Luca burrowed underground and, after a moment, sprung up under the frozen Pokemon, sending her flying up and colliding with the ground as she landed. On the plus side, though, the ice shattered with the force of the collision. However, the Nidorina that had been encased inside was very clearly unconscious.

"Nidorina is unable to battle, thus the winner is Glaceon and the victor is Dustin!" the referee announced.

(**A/N: I do not own Dustin. He is an OC submitted to me a while back by Shinymudkip25. I'm sorry I'm ending the story before his formal appearance, but I will be including his two major appearances in this sort-of-montage.**)

It was time. My battle with Dustin was about to begin. We smirked at each other as we sent out our Pokemon. He sent out a Raichu. I just looked at the Pokemon on my left shoulder.

"Let's do this."

He nodded and jumped off, red cheeks sparking in excitement.

"Battle begin!"

I took first move. "Pikachu, Quick Attack!" He used the attack, running full on at Raichu who was knocked back a short distance.

"Raichu, Focus Blast!" Dustin shouted. Raichu started forming a light blue sphere in his paw, which it sent at his unevolved counterpart.

"Dodge!" I ordered. Pikachu raced away like he had been shot from a cannon as the powerful but slow attack hit where he had been. "Iron Tail!" He jumped and did a forward flip, his tail glowing. He struck Raichu and it was knocked back.

"Brick Break!" Dustin countered. Raichu ran at Pikachu, its right paw glowing as it hit Pikachu. With a pained cry he slammed into the stadium wall.

"Pikachu!" I cried.

He slowly, shakily stood up. "Pi.. ka... chu!" he shouted defiantly to Raichu.

"Pikachu, head in for Iron Tail!" I shouted. He jumped and flipped again.

"Protect!" Dustin countered. A green barrier appeared around Raichu. Pikachu bounced off. "Dig!" Raichu dropped the Protect and burrowed underground.

"Be careful Pikachu, we don't know where it'll come up!" I shouted, quickly scanning the battlefield, trying to use a tactic I heard of while I'd been in Sinnoh. After a moment I saw small rocks and pebbles shaking behind Pikachu. "Behind you!"

Not even a second later Dustin shouted, "Focus Blast!"

Raichu shot up out of the ground and launched the blue orb at Pikachu, who quickly ran out of the way.

"Pikachu, Agility into Brick Break!" I ordered. Pikachu rapidly disappeared and reappeared elsewhere, getting closer and closer to where Raichu was. When he was a couple yards away, he jumped and came down on Raichu, his paw glowing white. He hit, sending Raichu skidding.

"Raichu, Brick Break and keep going 'till you hit!" Dustin shouted. Raichu started to run towards Pikachu, its arm glowing.

"Pikachu, use Agility and Quick Attack to dodge and hit when you can!" I countered. Pikachu nodded and started to run around, leaving a white trail as he disappeared and reappeared rapidly. Raichu frequently turned around to try to see Pikachu for long enough to hit. Every so often Pikachu slammed into Raichu, slowly but surely weakening it, not to mention the rapid dizziness from turning around so much. Eventually Pikachu stopped in front of me, wavering around a bit (obviously he was dizzy too), but otherwise fine. He and Raichu locked eyes.

"Pika pikachu pi-chu," Pikachu said.

"Rai rai," Raichu answered before collapsing.

"Raichu is unable to battle, Pikachu wins and the victor is Tay!" the referee announced. Pikachu ran and jumped onto my shoulder. I walked up to Dustin once he returned Raichu.

"That was a great battle, Dustin," I smiled, Pikachu agreeing.

"Thanks," he nodded.

Liam, with pink-purple orbs swirling around him, burst out of the ground behind Sawsbuck and hit it with the orbs. He then tried to jump gracefully back in front of me, but sort of crashed instead as the paralysis took affect.

"Liam!" I shouted in worry. He quickly stood up.

"I'm okay Tay. I won't lose!" Liam said over his shoulder.

With that, he started to glow. As everyone watched, he grew, his tail narrowing and forking at the end. He overall became slimmer, and tufts of fur sprouted right under his ears, which were now a bit wider and slightly different shape. His mane disappeared. This all happened at once. Once these changes were finished, a slim pink Espeon stood in Liam's place as the glow faded. I shook off the residual fear as I looked at him (from when I was little), and beamed. "Liam, you did it!" I pulled out my Pokedex and scanned my brother.

"**Espeon, the Sun Pokemon. It has very sensitive fur, and can use minute shifts in the wind to predict its foe's next move.**" It said aloud, showing me a list of his moves. I cheered.

"Liam, let's try one of your new moves. Use Heal Bell!" I ordered. The bright red gem on Liam's forehead glowed for a moment, and his body glowed light blue for a moment before returning to normal.

"We did it Liam! Wait, no, **you** did it. You even managed to evolve, just as you wanted!" I cried out happily. He nuzzled into the crook of my neck.

"I did, didn't I?" he murmured. I blinked, expecting a typical hyper response, but didn't react verbally. We walked off the arena for the next match.

**A/N:**

**Well, here you go. All of my best moments from over 10 unposted chapters. I will eventually be posting my new version, so keep your eyes out if you're interested! Goodbye, and I'll see you in my rewritten version!**

**~PsychicEevee0103**


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